A few weeks back I started a thread based on information I received about Vic Niederhoffer blowing up his Matador Fund in the day's before August Opex. I made no claim to the accuracy of my source although it was someone with ties to Vic's operation. He had no axe to grind. Even as an alias on a message board I wouldn't ipso facto print information about someone real if I thought the charge was bogus. The thread was a viewership success. 12,000 hits it's first day. Vic's posse, including Marketsurfer, after a dozen denials, finally admitted that Vic took a body blow. Alas the thread was deleted by Baron. In a subsequent Feedback thread Baron explained his decision. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102468 Today I received more information. The WSJ is working on a Vic story. Key elements: Matador has lost 93% of it's funds. Vic's clearing house forced liquidation of his position. Vic was short 15,000 Mch08 1000puts. Vic is in "hiding" somewhere in NYC. Remember this story broke on Elite Trader!
Don't you mean August expiration? The options expiration in July was fairly uneventful and the S&P was still above 1500, I don't think even Vic could have blown up then with those 15,000 S&P 500 puts.
Yeah doesn't make sense. My guess the max he lost on that position is $1-1.5 Million. I don't know the size of the fund, but I'm guessing its not that small.