UPDATE 5-Van der Moolen granted creditor protection

* Blames weak liquidity position on disappointing results

* Considering asset sales and asset writedowns

* To hold EGM in September

* Trading in shares suspended

* H1 revenue down 73 pct from 2008, posts loss

(Adds company history, sector background throughout)

By Ben Berkowitz and Aaron Gray-Block

AMSTERDAM, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Dutch brokerage Van der Moolen Holding NV VDMN.AS won creditor protection from a Dutch court on Monday, saying it had a "very weak" liquidity position and was considering asset sales and significant writedowns.

The move came less than a month after the company's chief executive resigned, leaving it without a management board. On July 17, Van der Moolen said its top priority would be raising capital amid further losses.

The 117-year-old firm was once one of the most recognizable names on Wall Street as a top market maker on the New York Stock Exchange. It was also a central player in Amsterdam stock trading and was the main listed brokerage in the country.

But the rise of electronic trading led it to sell its New York floor trading operations to Lehman Brothers in late 2007 and retrench to Europe, where the credit crisis and market volatility proved its undoing.

A company spokeswoman declined to comment on the filing and the prospect of asset impairments and declined to make anyone from the company available to comment. In a one-sentence statement late Monday the company said it won a "provisional moratorium on payments" from a court in Amsterdam.

Rabobank Securities cut its price target on the stock to 10 cents from 1 euro and said Van der Moolen's recent loss of 21 traders in England and the Netherlands was a bad sign.

Van der Moolen shares briefly traded above 5 euros a year ago on hopes of a turnaround, but have since lost nearly 80 percent of their value.

NOT IN CONTROL

"It is not sure if the remaining traders will stay and it will be very difficult to attract new quality traders in a surseance (suspension of payments) situation," analyst Cor Kluis said in a note.

"This large quality staff outflow indicates that Van der Moolen seems to be not well in control of this important process. Consequently Van der Moolen's profitability and franchise going forward is quite unsure, which makes credit providers cautious and results difficult to predict," he said.

Alongside the filing, Van der Moolen reported first-half results three days ahead of schedule. The company lost 8.7 million euros ($12.3 million) on revenue of 24.9 million. A year ago it earned 14.5 million on revenue of 91.2 million.

Total assets fell by more than half to just over 755 million euros, driven by sharp declines in cash on hand and securities owned, the company said.

After CEO Richard den Drijver resigned, analysts said it was clear the company's business model did not work.

Around the world, brokerages are struggling to bounce back from the market weakness of 2008 and early 2009. Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) said last week businesses tied to its Merrill Lynch unit lost $1.8 billion in the second quarter.

Van der Moolen said it would call an extraordinary shareholders meeting, expected to be held in the second half of September. It said for now it would not seek a new management team and the supervisory board would continue to run the company.

Dutch stock market regulator AFM suspended trading in Van der Moolen shares in anticipation of a court ruling.

NYSE Euronext said from Tuesday, prices and volumes in Van der Moolen shares would be included in a special section for securities subject to a listing measure. Van der Moolen ended last week with a market capitalisation of 52 million euros. (Additional reporting by Reed Stevenson; Editing by Will Waterman and David Holmes) ($1=.7048 Euro)