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A sinking HiQ and 80%

28 comments / April 13, 2015

Sinking HiQSmall post on the sisters HiQ Invest and DeGiro – both independent of each other but having the same parent company.

The sinking HiQ

First of all the hedge fund HiQ Invest. Founded by some former AOT traders, they received pretty good press after performing nicely in the first few years. Especially while carrying very low assets under management, some good returns have been reported (2009 in particular was good). Even won some awards a few years ago. At least they still have the pictures.

Year on year loss of 20%

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Euronext loses derivatives market

6 comments / April 8, 2015

The old exchange Euronext has been releasing monthly turnover statistics every month. This year the number of transactions in the equity market has seen a sharp rise compared with first quarter of 2014. Euronext reported a rise of 29% in traded value.

It’s a bull market, so the same number of shares traded represent a higher value. At the same time there’s more action in the market, the increased value of traded stocks is a result of both variables. Last month the average daily transaction value (ADV) was €9100 million. To be clear, that’s for all Euronext cash markets (Lisbon, Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam).

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Doubts on Flow Traders’ IPO

31 comments / April 8, 2015

Flow Traders has been telling the press their IPO is planned this year “before the summer” and at Euronext Amsterdam. The Telegraaf has been reporting this last weekend (blendle – nl).

It was also the only relevant piece of information, because the journalists have a very hard time understanding what the Flow Traders is actually doing. Not all their fault, as Flow has been posing as a true high frequency trading gem – and they are not. Comparing the business with a racing team (“the car is the IT and connections, the driver is the trader”) seems to be coming straight from Flow’s marketing department (or IPO underwriting investment bank).

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Markets halt after Euronext upgrades router

13 comments / March 31, 2015

Broke-214x300The engines at Euronext have a reputation comparable with French cars. Unreliable and panne at the worst thinkable moments. In the past years the triple witching hours have been most likely to see trading halts. Recently the market shut down on December 15th and November 27th – but this year we did not experience any trouble. A whole quarter without glitches.

Until last weekend’s system upgrade

Last weekend, the system engineers at Euronext decided it was a good moment for upgrade a router. Monday morning, the derivative markets at Euronext suddenly started to experience trouble shortly after the opening. A short while markets remained operating at half speed with half of the participants in the dark. Ten minutes later the exchange was forced to close the doors.

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Chris Oomen and Allard Jakobs together in Kas Bank

22 comments / March 26, 2015

HISTORY_2002_KASBANK.ashxChris Oomen is the boss of the small insurance company DSW. Not one of the boring pack, DSW is the only rebel in the small Dutch world of insurance. I would switch if it wouldn’t be such a hassle.

Oomen is good for a few bucks, he’s one of the richest men in the country. He earned his fortune with another company he founded in 1986: Optiver.

Optiverder

With his estimated net worth of €150 million Oomen is a modest investor. His personal holding is called Optiverder, and can be found in the AFM registers with stakes in small caps. In spite of a bull market, his small cap adventures haven’t turned gold. He owns 5% of Grontmij and is facing a loss on this one of 75% (since 2008). He scratched a 5% stake in ICT Automatisering between 2011 and 2013 – only a small loss if he was lucky.

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