Buttonwood collapsed under rogue trading
The Chicago based trading firm Buttonwood Trading Group is history after a rogue trading incident in the commodity market wiped their balance sheet in December.
The firm employed some 50 employees and has a stake in several other trading companies across the world – according to their cheap website. By the way, they even appear to have another free great website.
Apart from inexpensive websites the firm used RTS as trading software. As far as I can see Buttonwood has been around since 2008. Company – or whats left of it – declined to comment on the news.
Tontine
Five months ago, when Amsterdam based ETF trader Nyenburgh was bought by Virtu – not all employees were welcome in London. Half a dozen index arbitrage traders, with roots at IMC, were told to leave. With investment from Buttonwood, they started Tontine Trading House. With the mother firm in panic, their start-up venture lost financial backing and had to shut the doors. Close your business within two months and have your apartment stacked with brand new office furniture and trade desks : that’s definitely bad luck.
well well, what a pity
all these small companies like Buttonwood will disappear, it’s only a matter of time due to increased competition, less opportunities, and consolidation of the market. It’s funny to read this:
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/53545/working-for-a-prop-trading-house/
an article from 2008, all the mentioned prop trading houses do not exist anymore. Despite of being very selective, getting 1000 CVs per month and hiring only a couple of traders…
I don’t know anything about buttonwood, but the companies mentioned in your article I wouldn’t call prop trading houses. Bucket shop is more appropriate. No pay and 50+% of profit is not what you’ll find in any serious shop. From the article:
‘Others offer no basic pay at all. Whatever the set-up, the bulk of pay comes from a share of the profits you make by trading. This could start at 50% and go up as you become more successful.’
any background to the rogue trading incident?
‘according to their cheap website.’
it’s more expensive than this blog for sure, Jack?
‘they even appear to have another free great website.’
where’s your free great website, Jack?
‘With investment from Buttonwood, they started Tontine Trading House
http://www.tontinetradinghouse.com/‘
haha, dutchchies wins the award for having the most cheapstake website, hands down
‘Close your business within two months and have your apartment stacked with brand new office furniture and trade desks’
when individual traders get fired from banks, they don’t even get their wallets out of the office, somebody goes upstair and gets it for you, atleast this time they got the furniture, like those alphabay vultures from VDM
‘that’s definitely bad luck’
no that’s financial markets… in real-life
‘well well, what a pity’
you euro-types are way too soft, hasn’t this current crisis not toughened you one bit?
‘all the mentioned prop trading houses do not exist anymore’
how did you check all the following have closed shop?
– amplify trading
– Elocal Traders
– Met Traders
– TCA Futures
– http://www.ghtradersllc.com/careersInTrading.aspx
– http://www.schneidertrading.com
– http://www.kytegroup.com/
‘all the mentioned prop trading houses do not exist anymore’
how did you check all the following have closed shop?
– amplify trading
– Elocal Traders
– Met Traders
– TCA Futures
– ghtradersllc
– schneidertrading
– kytegroup
‘Bucket shop is more appropriate’
bucket shops are old skool and illegal, the correct term you are looking for is trading arcade
‘No pay and 50+% of profit is not what you’ll find in any serious shop’
these houses have payout of 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% dependent on level of profitability. If you generate 50k, expect shop to retain 25k; if you generate 500k, maybe shop would retain 50k
Anyone know which HK HFT was involved in the Kospi error trade?
What happened in the Kospi?
I heard it was eclipse
Did anyone make any money from it?
$30M is a lot of money to donate to the market.
YP, eclipse lost 30MLN.. they can all go home
30 million what? Usd? Far too big. It is much less than that
If they lost 30 million usd then the firm is bust. Are they trying to close out positions in other markets?
Does that mean that the European expansion has been postponed again
Relax ladies. It was nowhere near $30m, Eclipse is not bust, and it’s business as usual.
Well there were 100s of thousands of kospi futures involved. Cash delta of each is about 130k. So I’d say 30mil is a fair estimate.
What exactly happened?
Incorrect. Around 30k futures
I heard millions of futures
http://ibankcyclist.blogspot.nl/2013/01/its-getting-hot-here-mistakes-happen.html
perhaps Paul Hilgers can lend them 30 mln and bail them out? chicken feed for him
[…] anonymous: perhaps Paul Hilgers can lend them 30 mln and bail them out? chicken feed for him […] […]
‘Does that mean that the European expansion has been postponed again’
you are so funny, haha
I supervised that the construction of this website, and I am deeply offended you think it is cheap
In a shop like Buttonwood this was bound to happen, sooner or later.
how did you reach to this conclusion about Buttonwood? Would this not be valid for all the companies of this nature and size?
a shop like Buttonwood is unprofessional by definition, they run a simple concept: outsource all technology, hire traders and fire them as soon as the strategy stops making money.With the end result of continuously running new strategies, some of them make money at the beginning and then lose everything in one shot, like what happened. A serious strategy takes years to develop and a team of professionals. It can never be developed at a place like Buttonwood.
“what’s unprofessional about that, they are in business of making money, not to be professional?”
I’d say Buttonwood failed pretty bad when it comes to making money, don’t you agree?
Have they ever made any money? …. And now they’re bust.
TNT: winners/losers?
winning!