Pros
- Trading strategy/style is very similar to Optiver - the 3 founders came from there. Good for learning trading as a beginner then leaving to one of the more established shops after a year. - They do US Equity options well (90% dispersion trading) and one or two senior traders are very knowledgeable. Good for learning if this is your first job. They also do crypto options.
Cons
- Salary is very bad. I was there for less than a year and they revamped the trader bonus structure twice. First they slowed the progression of junior traders from what was initially promised. They then further reduced the starting bonus for junior traders. -Untrustworthy HR practices. From personal experience, Maverick Derivatives has knowingly omitted important information (e.g. first 3 months as a trader will not count to your bonus), and made me sign unnecessary documents that reduced my legal rights as I left the firm (which were later annulled in court). Maverick also lied about the work I did in court documents and had to later retract those statements during the hearing. - Bad working hours in Amsterdam office for US Equity traders. You will be trading US hours in the Netherlands, so be prepared to return home at midnight - No appreciation for skilled workers. Most of the trading team either cannot code or do not want to write code. Trading is done semi-systematically through clicking buttons on a GUI developed in-house. If you can code, expect to be given the lion's share of coding work but not be rewarded for it during bonus time. - Excessively unreasonable non-compete and petty enforcement of said non-compete. I was in the US Equity Options team as a junior trader with no prior trading experience. I worked at Maverick for 9 months and when I left they attempted to enforce a 1 year unpaid non-compete. For context I was joining a crypto spot market-making company and had never traded crypto whilst at Maverick. I had to go to Amsterdam court twice (they appealed their first loss) to get them to finally back down. The judges agreed in both instances that their non-compete was unreasonable. [If you are a new trader, only join this place if you really cannot find a better offer (e.g. Optiver, IMC, Flow). Learn what you can and leave quickly.]