What does it take to Open an office for Bright?

S

Stock_Lover

I'm new around here. Looks like Bright , ECHO and IB are talked about a lot on these threads. The above firms have offices but none in my immeadiate area.

I was curious what does it take to Open an Office?

Don care to comment?

Stock_lover
 
Originally posted by Stock_Lover
I'm new around here. Looks like Bright , ECHO and IB are talked about a lot on these threads. The above firms have offices but none in my immeadiate area.

I was curious what does it take to Open an Office?

Don care to comment?

Stock_lover
More...

Sure, I get the same question several times a week.

What we do is look for successful traders who want to "go home again"...or who have a location in mind that they feel strongly about. We pay for everything, leases, phone lines, equipment and all the rest....and the designated person gets a percentage of the office volume (this ranges from a couple of thousand a month to $20,000 or so, depending on how much effort the manager puts in, and how well the office is doing).

So we sort of "promote from within"...find a handful of qualified traders (sometimes just 3 or 4), and then go for it. We just opened in Herndon, VA, and will be opening in Red Bank, NJ soon....using the same method.

Feel free to call me with any questions.

Don 800.249.7488
 
Don,

Adding on to this thread about opening a local Bright office. I am moving to the Orlando, Florida area from the island of Kauai, Hawaii and was wondering about any prop shops there. I have been in the markets for 12 years trading futures, futures options, stocks, and stock options. I am in the process of slowly moving away from the day-to-day trading grind (but still doing it), and would like to move into more of an advisory/overseer mode. I'm intrigued by the idea of helping start a new office in terms of actually finding the space, getting the equipment, setting up websites, advertising, etc. After the office is set up, my thoughts on whether to stay around and help/advise the new traders is still undecided as that would probably require being in the daily trading mode again. What are your thoughts about using a guy who knows the markets, knows the equipment, knows much about data vendors/trading platforms, etc and would like to help set up the physical aspects of an office? Do you have permanent guys who handle this end for you? I would be interested in discussing this with you as I have a friend in the commercial real-estate business in Florida who could help with finding an available building. This, of course is all dependent on whether there is enough interest from traders in that area to make it a viable endeavor. Appreciate any feedback.

Lee Lowell
 
If the home office pays for all the leases and phone lines, what are the future obligations of the 35+ leases you have signed versus the $10 million owner's capital in the LLC?
 
I think all my wisdom was lost while getting up at 3 a.m. the last 4 years to trade on Hawaii time, which is 6 hours behind EST.
 
Originally posted by syd697
Don,

Adding on to this thread about opening a local Bright office. I am moving to the Orlando, Florida area from the island of Kauai, Hawaii and was wondering about any prop shops there. I have been in the markets for 12 years trading futures, futures options, stocks, and stock options. I am in the process of slowly moving away from the day-to-day trading grind (but still doing it), and would like to move into more of an advisory/overseer mode. I'm intrigued by the idea of helping start a new office in terms of actually finding the space, getting the equipment, setting up websites, advertising, etc. After the office is set up, my thoughts on whether to stay around and help/advise the new traders is still undecided as that would probably require being in the daily trading mode again. What are your thoughts about using a guy who knows the markets, knows the equipment, knows much about data vendors/trading platforms, etc and would like to help set up the physical aspects of an office? Do you have permanent guys who handle this end for you? I would be interested in discussing this with you as I have a friend in the commercial real-estate business in Florida who could help with finding an available building. This, of course is all dependent on whether there is enough interest from traders in that area to make it a viable endeavor. Appreciate any feedback.

Lee Lowell
More...

We would certainly speak with you, but we have always handled the detail work via our clearing firm and vendors (equipment, layouts, computers, and the like). We negotiate our leases based on national committments (usually), and usually feel pretty comfortable with our "local" people telling us where the site should be.

We tend to lean away from 'non trader" participants for the most part, since we know our traders do very well, and need someone to "lead them into battle" ...simply meaning that they (managers) are very profitable traders themselves.

In addition, there are no "salaires'...each Manager is compensated based on the performance of the office, thus keeping our overhead low.

All that being said, if you want to dive in "head first" (trade and manage), then we're always willing to talk!!

Don
 
Originally posted by Newatthis
If the home office pays for all the leases and phone lines, what are the future obligations of the 35+ leases you have signed versus the $10 million owner's capital in the LLC?
More...

Since we are not planning on closing any locatons, they all more than pay for themselves. And remember, the $10Mil is just the "minimum" we promise to keep in the firm, there may be many times that.

This is the benefit of not having "subLlC's" pretending to take the risk away from the home office or the traders involved. We don't have to "plan for failure"...as some firms seem to be doing by allowing franchises, etc.

Don
 
Syd, Ouch. Too many years of getting up way too early! You're a better man than I am.

Don,
Thanks for the answer, but I don't understand it. In my college accounting class when we were looking at the BS we were taught to look at obligations versus capital. I took it one step further and differentiated between A members and B members in the LLC because I assume that the A's would be responsible for the LT debt. Yes, assuming you have a going concern then the obligations would be met. But, once profits go away, you need to look at the available capital to pay obligations. So, if I was joining an LLC or a sub LLC (I left one to become a customer) I would want to know if my capital I traded with was protected from the actual operations of the business.

BTW, I understand that your firm is one of the more highly capitalized firm.
 
Originally posted by Don Bright


Since we are not planning on closing any locatons, they all more than pay for themselves. And remember, the $10Mil is just the "minimum" we promise to keep in the firm, there may be many times that.
More...


interesting.....how much more than $10 million is in Bright Trading's reserves? (just out of curiousity)
 
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