Well I have been trading with Swift Trade for over a year in Toronto and moved to Montreal a few months ago. I don't want to get into the details of what's going on as it's none of my buisness but the general story is this:
The traders in the Montreal branch have opened their own company called 'World Trade Securities' (yes with the assistance of a French entrepreneur who sold his company for an estimated $250 Million a few years back).
So far all branches in Montreal are closed with the regular montreal Swift guys trading in Dorval. I think to sweeten the deal they have been offered 100% for 6 months! I will confirm on this.
World Trade Securities is using a completely different platform than Swift trade. Personally i find it more advantageous to NASDAQ traders than NYSE (thats the market i trade in). The NY open books come in a separate window( i know alot of traders prefer this but i am more used to the old swift way). So far access to real time books hasn't been applied for, but the company is working on it.
New trainees get 40% and after graduation the percentage increases (I don't want to get into those details until the company releases it themselves). This is a much higher percentage than what Swift trade offers both to trainees (they dont get paid) and graduates (the rookie levels).
Another interesting fact is that the new company doesn't want to expand too fast or hire as many people as they can find. For now it is limited and for good reason! The end of 2006 with the Swift trade connection losses and execution/software issues costs us money! I think they expanded way too fast and were not able to cope with the necessary maintenance involved. As of now Swift trade expansion i believe has been stopped until they get the mess cleared up (i think thats a good move on the companys part).
As far as Sammy is concerned, He recently had an accident and was not trading for the past several weeks when this whole issue came about. He is not part of the new company and will be staying with Swift Trade (hopefully sammy can confirm this aswell).
That's the story so far. Hopefully this will help stop the rumours going around which are harmful for all parties.