I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves as much as I am on this particular thread, LOL.
1. Our college classes are continuing education, and are certainly not a "recruiting" venture....we get "paid" about $100 by the local college to teach a 5 week class. This is our way of "giving back to the Community" - trying to help keep people away from "brokers, advisors, and all the rest of the financial industry who are completely unnecessary". We teach a couple of hundred people every year (about 7 years now about research, investing, derivatives, retirement funds, and all the rest.....from a perspective of someone who is not a retail broker or "advisor" - meaning that they couldn't give us their money if they wanted to. We started doing this when we found that most of the teachers at the college and university level know very little about the markets, much less trading at this level...and most are simply retail brokers looking for clients.
2. We do have recent graduates who have chosen to get involved in their own trading business...and I'm actually quite proud of most of them...making money from the get-go, good attitudes, very respectful and happy. We allow for special programs, match funds with some, all the rest.
3. The high volume "seasoned traders" who have returned from other firms (for various reasons), and who have chosen us over the other couple of firms, seem to be quite happy with their overall package.
I'm glad that you guys are content with whoever you're trading with....After nearly 30 years in the industry I've learned that it's really a good idea to keep friendly and respectful with everyone involved, from clerks to CEO's...you never know who's going to be working for/with whom.
... you might notice that I have done my best to help those who ask without caring where they clear or who they trade with.
We do our best, knowing full well that we can't be "all things to all people" .........
Perhaps some of you can join us for our retreat coming in October...have a little "inter - firm" fun, golf, poker etc. And, btw, there is no "profit" in this venture for BT.....(figured I better point that out up front, save you guys a bunch of typing, LOL).
(Not sure what kind of "marketing quip" to insert here, and I certainly don't want to annoy anyone, so bye for now).
Don
