Why Did Bright Close It's Dallas Office?

Quote from Jessica Spears:

If Bright Trading is so successful, why did it close it's Dallas office?
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if walmart is so successful why did it sell its stores in germany,

logic is not your strong point.
 
Guys, the thread is about Bright, it's former Dallas office, why it was closed, etc. If you'd like to discuss opening a prop shop there, rumors about other firms maybe opening a prop shop there, other hidden prop shops that might still be there, etc. etc. then please either find a general Dallas thread or start your own. Thanks.
 
Quote from ozarka:

What would it take for Bright Trading to open a prop shop in Dallas?
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How many traders are in each Bright office or would they need to be willing to open an office? What is the low and high range?
 
Quote from ozarka:

Don't get me wrong, Austin is a much better city for the average person to live in. It's a nicer looking city with a great atmosphere, with lots to do. Just like there are nicer cities to live in than NY and Chicago.

I just think that if you are a trader or work in the financial industry, you will be better off in Dallas over Austin from a career standpoint because all the firms are here. This creates a constant stream of candidates and turnover from all these firms that a prop shop could get access to. People hate to relocate. You become attached to your city through friends, associates, family and just the overall history of the town.

Honestly there are much better places to live versus Austin or Dallas if you are looking for lakes, etc. And I don't know if that would justify a business venture. :)

If you are genuinely looking to open up a prop shop, you need to be confident that you will have a good source of traders from the existing job market in your area and you want to be in an area where there isn't much competition as well and Dallas is perfect for that.

I think you would have better luck pulling from a larger pool of industry professionals. Having a prop in Chicago and NY makes sense for the same reasons. The only problem is there is a lot of competition in both areas now.

So if you look south to Texas and think, "how can I capitalize on that region" you first should look to see where all the firms are again. There is a reason why there are so many hedge funds, mutual funds, trading firms, and large financial offices in Dallas. And that reason is because everyone else is here! I know that sounds like a silly reason to put up a firm but it's why it happened in NY and why it happens in Chicago.

Dallas is a large city. You don't have to put the office right in down town. You could put it slightly outside the city if traffic is a big issue. Fort Worth is about 15 minutes away from Dallas and doesn't have nearly as much traffic as Dallas. And there is a lot of money in Fort Worth as well near the South Lake area. Ross Perot owns a lot of the land out there. Maybe you can work out a deal with him?

Let him trade in your shop in exchange for some land maybe. That should bring in some spectators to watch.
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Where was Bright's old office at? Was it in Highland Park?
 
Quote from cashonly:

What I was trying to do was show that if you look at the universe of remote traders, percentage-wise, it will have a very small success rate because you have such a high-percentage of un-trained or poorly-trained traders, part-time people, hobbyists, etc. And if you look at the universe of in-office traders, it will be composed by a majority of highly trained, well-backed professionals such as those people on the trading floors/desks of GS, MER, MS, etc. These people are brought in from the top B-schools, given months or years of intensive training, work side-by-side with other successful traders, and take a nice salary while the majority of their profits go to the firm that employs them.

With us, the trader gets 100% of the net profit. We don't get any of his profits, so we don't have the business model that includes paying people 6 figure salaries while they train under our top traders. We would rather our traders be able to keep all their profits than suck them up and only give them a small fraction of those profits like the major brokerages do.

And if you read my prior post about Bright having offices, you'll see that it's the traders that want to be at home, not that we want to close offices. There is no benefit to either traders or us as a firm to have offices if traders aren't coming into them and it's not good business to spend money on resources that aren't used.

My prior post was more to the statistical value of looking at the entire universe of traders, not specifically about our firm. I hope that clears it up.

Cash
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That seems to still substantiate that in-office traders have an edge. And the argument could be made that sure some offices will do better than others, but it will depend on who's in the office managing it. Like you said, a great training program, an office like GS, MER, etc.

You don't have to go to a GS to get their training program. You simply get one of their traders or a trader who traded there. Is this rare, certainly. But on the same note, you don't have to shoot for an ex-GS trader. You could just put together a good overall staff/manager/group. As you noted, that's what determines the likliness of success.

Just as it has been mentioned, the Vegas office is well regarded because of the caliber of associates there.

Similarly, if you could find the traders elsewhere, I don't see why you wouldn't pursue it and put up an office.

If some prefer remote, that's fine. I'm sure there are still quite a number that would prefer an office. That just means more business for your firm. I would understand if the costs are high in doing it or if there is too much competition, but that's not the case. Thoughts on this?
 
Quote from Don Bright:

OK, again it seems we need some clarification. Back in the 1990's, it cost quite a lot of money to have proper broadband connections for our traders...as much as $20K or more per month. As time went on, and broadband became available at home, more traders stayed at home. We had around 40 locations at one point. When the leases came due, we simply asked the traders if they wanted to keep the office or simply trade remotely...most chose remote.

We went from less than 25 remotes to a couple of hundred...and it's still our biggest growth segment.

We've kept the offices where the traders wanted to keep them open, and gracefully closed when the leases were up a the others....not a big deal...others have been doing the same.

PS: We have affiliated offices, and would be glad to listen to any business plan that makes sense!!

All the best,
Don
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Don,

If you are committed to making traders profitable in that office, they will not choose to go remote. The reason they are going remote is because they don't see the value you are providing them at the office. It's very simple really. And this goes back to my first point. The bottom line is, your guys are not making money in those offices.

BTW, I read that your poker star Jesus Ferguson left Bright Trading. What happened there?
 
Quote from Maverick74:

Don,

If you are committed to making traders profitable in that office, they will not choose to go remote. The reason they are going remote is because they don't see the value you are providing them at the office. It's very simple really. And this goes back to my first point. The bottom line is, your guys are not making money in those offices.

BTW, I read that your poker star Jesus Ferguson left Bright Trading. What happened there?
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Excellent point. You should be managing a prop shop somewhere. :D
 
Quote from luckydan:

Where was Bright's old office at? Was it in Highland Park?
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I think it was off of Preston in Dallas. Highland Park commercial space is actually reasonably priced surprisingly.
 
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