Van der Moolen puzzles again

Van der Moolen serves as an easy target to make fun of. The listed trading firm has to inform the public on every bad move it makes. Today was another fine example. For unknown reasons the charming Hans Kroon decided not to join the board. A topic for speculation.

Then the financial markets watchdog AFM suspended trading in the shares Van der Moolen. Awaiting a press release which did not appear. Again a topic for speculation. Guess they will present a complicated press release with serious bad news on Friday. A very complicated story probably, because simple stuff could have been released within an hour and trading could continue. And bad news, as good news is easy to explain.

Possible press release topic

Possible subjects for the coming press release:

• Another serious loss on dividend tax?
• A significant trading loss by rogue trading?
• Losing the last quarter results in the train?
• Insider trading?

I would place my bets on trouble with dividend tax : a little bit of history repeating. Time will tell.