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Perhaps, lack of understanding on my side, but what does "their number will be up" mean? From what I've heard, it's most often the case that developers want to move into trading.

I think he means that they're worried about employment after their stint as traders.

Why would they want to work as relatively tiny salaried devs after getting million dollar bonuses, rather than just retire?

You mean "Mad house of trading" = Millions of dollars in bonuses.