Paper is certainly thinner than I remember it but I also think that this is because they are sharpening up on their execution as anybody should, now the markets are electronic. Traders are more execution specialists and analysts decide what to do. Even on fairly big volume days the amount of paper that crosses the bid/ask spread is less and less.
Other issues include volatility as rates have not moved in a long time and do not look like being moved by ECB for a while to come. Also there are a lot of new traders in Euribor, even large arcades in India are now trading Liffe and Eurex, where this ends I do not know. Some of the locals have 10,000clip limits and while it is so quiet they are happy to stick a few thousand either side of a traded price and pick up the small bits of pro rata on the paper that comes from the brokers as market orders and anything else for that matter. These guys are visible because the market will be lets say 10,000 a side with one mid price in small volume flipping about and as soon as either side trades in more than a few lots thousands will be pulled from the volume. It is a bit pathetic but it works.
I think that when the markets get back to their old self again and volatility returns then it is likely people trying to flip or spoof will be taken out and driven to their doom. Just a matter of time. Until that time arrives however these guys will continue to make excellent returns. Thing that makes rotter so unpopular incidentally is that his primary targets in his flipping are other locals. I believe he received death threats in past. I have no idea how rotterinvest will manage large capital, this style of trading is not set up to manage more than a few million. Maybe he will try his hand at directional. If he is as smart as he has been in Eurex on that, then sure he will do very well.
