Is this a sign of big equity derivatives hiring?

As last week drew to an end, rumours were flying around the market that Alvise Munari, Merrill Lynch's London-based head of equity-linked structuring and structured sales for EMEA, had left.

BofA Merrill declined to comment, and Munari wasn't answering his phone. If Munari has gone at this time of the year, it could mean one of three things.

1) He's resigned to go somewhere else.

2) He's resigned to play golf/take up gardening/ start a farm in South West England.

3) He's been gently encouraged to do 1 or 2.

The most exciting option is number one, implying that only weeks before bonuses are due to be announced and not long before bonuses are due to be paid out, Munari has been bought out and moved elsewhere.

Who's hiring in equity derivatives at the moment? Headhunters point to Citigroup, which pinched Romain Garagnon, head of equity derivatives structuring at BofA Merrill in November, plus two others. Citadel is also rumoured to be snooping around London equity derivatives staff as part of its push to set up an investment bank.

Assuming Munari has gone, however, 2 and 3 are equally possible, suggesting there's not really much happening in equity derivatives hiring after all. Sadly, this may be more the case.

"We hope it will pick up, but right now there's not much going on and we're still waiting for clarity on bonuses," said one headhunter.

According to another equity derivatives recruiter, the real activity in the area is at the vanilla end, in ETFs and Delta One products. "I placed a Delta One person in December and he's already had six headhunter calls," says one. "HSBC, Mac Bank Deutsche and JP Morgan" are all said to be building in Delta One, he adds.