Hey, Could someone (or a bunch of people) please explain what the flipper does exactly? - (on the technical side of his strategy) Thanks!
He offers to buy or sell a large volume at a particular price. The offer would attract other traders, who would post their own buy or sell offers at the same price. He would then withdraw his offer and reverse his position, from sell to buy or vice-versa, to take advantage of the price he had created. That's what the article about him says anyway.
He places massive size to run the market like 6000 bids and offers in the bund. Sell 100 into his 6000 bid and all of a sudden it's 6000 offered. Buy another 100 into that offer and hey presto back bid 6000. Occasionaly he gets rumbled like last week when the hedge funds came into the bund on the back of GM and ford and took out 7 prices of these ridiculous orders in one trade. All of a sudden the orders were down to 2/300 lots in the whole book. Whoever got taken got a shock. This type of trading only works in quiet markets when paper isn't about. The flipper is no longer much of an issue as plenty of people match him in size and clip him in one go but a few months back he had the market in the palm of his hand.
Do a Google search. Meanwhile, this series of posts from Oanda's message board may suffice: http://www2.oanda.com/cgi-bin/msgboard/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=18;t=000310
the most recent interview was given in trader monthly magazine the issue before this one I think - http://www.traderdaily.com/magazine/article/176.html two page spread with cheesy photo. He runs his own fund http://www.rotterinvest.com search for past threads on him on this site there is enough to keep you occupied for months, it was argued to the death as to whether he's a genius or a prat...yawn
This Kid ( 32) made 50-60 millions euro last year He move 200-300,000 roundturns daily using the X_Trader platform, and clearing through GNI Touch. interview: http://www.day-trading-resources.com/celebrity_traders.htm
I have read all the articles about him except the "trader monthly" one, if any one has a copy of this article I would be grateful.
I noticed this same sudden change in the FDAX as well. The GM news was incredible and I felt like I hit one of these fakers on the news. I took over 60 contracts and it fell hard. For the next 2 days, the FDAX was thinner and more volatile as it was a couple of years ago. I don't get bothered by these games much because I use those fake bids and offers to my advantage (watching the tape to see what actually printed really helps), but it felt good to see that the market still can't be monopolized on by someone with titanium balls. These types of orders have done nothing but to choke the moves forcing everyone to trade more size to choke the moves even further. However, this is the way of the markets now and one must find a way to adapt.