With all of the chaos at Merrill and the fact that bonuses will be so low, I'm assuming many traders will leave the organization???Will there be lots of entry level trading jobs (i.e. junior trader, trading assistant) that become available? If so, when will people leave? When will Merrill look to hire? Or, will they just fill the jobs with internal applicants?Thoughts?

You are a very positive man, my friend. That is an interesting way of looking at the current mess at merril.

But it is an interesting point of view from a potential trader...It is very difficult to handle downsizing well, and some good people will start looking, and find more attractive homes, even if they were never on the hit list.Indeed, they will be the very people who find it easiest to move.Also people drag others with them, so the bank will lose people more randomly than it would like.Also such things are rarely organised well.A common tactic is to tell managers to lose X% of their staff. Bizarrely, more than once it has been X% by body count rather than cost.,There is a general "averaging" in banks, and profitable groups may find themselves subsidising areas with more political clout, and if they feel this will continue it is rational to leave.Thus gaps will appear.Also there may be perceived pressure to hire cheaper people, and this can benefit newbies.

Aren't Merrill Lynch the top ranked IB (4 years running, no less!) for collateralized debt obligations?Jobs galore, surely. And a great place to learn the trade...

DCFC, you look like you cut yourself shaving and spilt mercurochrome all over your chin and shoulder.

The face looks a bit paler as well, or is that an optical allusion?

MER is getting hammered this morning!!!!! The job of CEO is definitely open, btw Edit: there will be some jobs for you in Citi too

It's an optical allusion to O'Neal's face when he realized his goose was cooked.

As long as Alexander Lipton stays there, I'd take it as a good sign that quant work is still appreciated. If he left it would be a bad sign but not necessarily mean junior level quants could not still find work there.