hey - the backpack / glasses / elbow brace description worked! i think the elbow brace was what gave me away.
the "final list" online of vendors didn't match who was actually there, which worked against me because there were a couple brokers i wanted to talk to in person who weren't there.
sunday had a free drink giveaway. so i walk down one of the aisles at a brisk pace, come back up the next one, and see, no joke (1 minute after doors open) a line of 50+ people waiting in line to get a free drink. really?? i went to get one an hour later before i was set to go, waited 5 minutes, the line didn't move much, and i made someone's day by giving him my free ticket. "you're all right!", he said.
i was looking to talk to scottrade i think, to see if they were clearing through someone other than penson, waiting to talk, and this guy keeps bugging me. he's from "i fund traders", o. velez' new operation. "want to get funded?" "oliver velez, great trader", master trader, etc. if i wasn't in a rush to get through the expo, i'd gladly have talked to him and asked for bonafide proof of how velez is a great *trader*, and what happened with his past operations? but i didn't. however, people for IFT were not only in his booth, but basically spread out in front of the booths around him, which is terribly rude.
# of forex booths appeared to be down this year. ashraf laidi had a booth in the hall, why i don't know. tradingmarkets appeared selling in very broad terms "the machine", which claims to be 40,000 strategies or something. tradestation /fidelity / schwab / ameritrade were the larger booth brokerages which were there.
as i've been to more and more of these expos, i realize that they're geared so heavily towards the person who has never been involved in trading, or is a cnbc fanboy.