FO Week has learned that some Locals have identified trader Paul Rotter as the culprit in the row. Rotter, who claims to have been threatened by several people, told FO Week: "I have never done anything illegal or unfair at all, so I can't understand these sudden defamations". He added that being threatened "motivates me to be more aggressive in the markets". The escalation in hostilities is the latest development over what some traders believe to be manipulative trading practices on the exchange specifically detrimental to Locals (see FO Week Vol 9 Nos 8 & 11). Eurex last week confirmed that its investigation into the matter is ongoing. The exchange is believed to be discussing possible changes to trading rules, but no decision had been made by press time. Rotter, who described himself as "the biggest trader on Eurex since about 1996 in terms of volume" claimed that traders crying foul about the flipper have missed the point. He said: "the truth is there is no so-called flipper who has all the markets in his pocket. "There are some big guys, including myself, who trade with a couple of thousand lots against each other. We are talking about the biggest futures markets in the world and these little guys? think that one man has all the markets under control every day - how realistic is that?" Rotter told FO Week that he had not had contact with Eurex in connection with either its investigation into certain Schatz trades or the threats. However, he did say "I am close to finding out the names and will report them to Eurex". Eurex did not want to comment on specific cases; however, a spokesperson did say that the exchange's disciplinary committee could be called upon in the event of traders receiving threats. The spokesperson referred to the German exchange act, which empowers exchanges to act in the event that a participant "breaches established principles of commercial trust or damages the reputation of another trading participant". Speculation continued to grow in the markets regarding the techniques in question, with sources claiming the strategy is not restricted to Schatz contracts. They suggested that large Schatz orders are intended to produce beneficial movements on correlated contracts traded on both Eurex and Euronext Liffe. Liffe Local Simon Forster told FO Week this possibility is plausible. "This is very likely indeed, and I have known big Locals who used to bully the Liffe Stirs when they first went onto Connect," he said. "When you are singularly the biggest participant in any market you have the advantage of knowing how much your orders make up the total and where you are in the queue." Andrew Dodsworth, director of Liffe market services, acknowledged the correlation between Eurex's Bobl and Schatz markets and Liffe's Euribor, but said, "whether it's possible to influence the behaviour of one market by actions in another I don't know. Our Euribor market is very deep, liquid and tight. It would be difficult to move it around". Dodsworth declined to comment on whether Liffe had received trading alerts or communications from participants of the kind experienced by Eurex.