May they rest in peace: dead firms

J

javaboy

Hello.

Was harkening to the good ol' days when day trading/bandits/nasdaq/ipos caught the imagination of joe q. public, many who thought this day trading stuff was easy, and some who read the ?jan '97? inc mag article with burke and block on the cover and were convinced to open their own shop (like I did).

So here's the deal: how many now-defunct day trading firms can we all collectively name? If possible include dates of operation and your interpretation of why they went under.

I'll start out with a couple:

GO Trading, out of santa monica, ca. Dont know start date, but my understanding was a remote trader took on some 100k shares long of something that went fm $8-$4, and compliance was asleep at the wheel. The head 24 decided just to leave (heard she got married to a raiders coach, or something)....

Summit Trading, houston, closed shop in 2000. Once occupied the galleria where block trading used to be. Last heard that the principal of the firm got nailed some $20k in sec fines.

And while I am at it, anybody know what happened/is happening to tradecast. Last time I looked, ?ameritrade? (or some other big firm) was trying to unload it. Anybody got any later info?(always did like tcast, order of priorities: 1. stability, 2. speed, 3. bells and whistles).

So...step up to the mike and start naming names. Enjoy.

Javaboy.
 
Quote from javaboy:

Hello.


Summit Trading, houston, closed shop in 2000. Once occupied the galleria where block trading used to be. Last heard that the principal of the firm got nailed some $20k in sec fines.

And while I am at it, anybody know what happened/is happening to tradecast. Last time I looked, ?ameritrade? (or some other big firm) was trying to unload it. Anybody got any later info?(always did like tcast, order of priorities: 1. stability, 2. speed, 3. bells and whistles).

So...step up to the mike and start naming names. Enjoy.

Javaboy.
More...

SUMMIT is alive and well....under new name, Augusata Securities and Golden Beneficial securities...same people, same office different names.....Tradecast was closed from what i hear...they tried to sell it for about 5 million but had no takers....being that they spent about 200 million on it, i heard the write off loss on it would be better then the actual sale.....
 
Quote from Speculator1929:

You are a creditor on line like everyone else and you get paid back your percentage of the equity after liquidation expense -- IF ANY.
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true,...although you may have put up 10k, it was comingled with other $$ so it could get ugly
 
blackwood trading also fired all of it's traders. they were trying to sell it's technology last i heard.

i really don't think the number is very high at all considering the change in the market. most, if not all, of the big ones remain in business, though with less traders of course.
 
AB Watley is basically gone, I believe. They were one of the first daytrading firms to go public. Now, I believe what's left of their software is owned by Penson, to whom they owed money. Not sure if there is anything left of their client base at some firm, though.

-Eric
 
Tradescape, purchased ecn Market XT, came up with the idea to pay traders to use their ECN, (providing liquidity one could, in theory, trade their positions flat and make money off the rebate). That didn't last too long, and neither did Tradescape--was purchased by eTrade (eTrade Power Pro) and Market XT merged with another ecn.
 
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