Worldco R.I.P. 1993-2003 ?

Don Bright · Mar 6, 2003

"The prize of the week is a pen I got from Bright Trading at the expo.

Hey, give me back my pen....I wondered what happened to it!!

Don

NYNY · Mar 6, 2003

Quote from dafugginman:

for all the bad mouthing of worldco, it says something that they can absorb a $30 million hit without missing a beat. how many other prop firms would be able to? at a minimum, that should alleviate some paranoia that they out to freeze your 5k or whatever. (i don't work for worldco, andover, or bright).

I heard it was 6 million, but I am sure some (or most) was his, since he sued.

But Worldco has loads of money in the bank. I heard a figure of a few hundred million.

Worldco is not losing money, but their margins blow compared to yesteryear.

Their biggest mistake (in my opinion) is leasing so many floors on Wall Street. I can see wanting your headquarters on Wall St. cause it sounds "cool." But Worldco is in 3 buildings on Wall. They must have like 20 floors. And the newest floors at 100 Wall(which are beautiful) are not maximizing floor space.

No reason for a prop firm to be on the most expensive real estate except they were caught up in the hype.

Don Bright · Mar 6, 2003

Quote from NYNY:

I heard it was 6 million, but I am sure some (or most) was his, since he sued.

But Worldco has loads of money in the bank. I heard a figure of a few hundred million.

Worldco is not losing money, but their margins blow compared to yesteryear.

Their biggest mistake (in my opinion) is leasing so many floors on Wall Street. I can see wanting your headquarters on Wall St. cause it sounds "cool." But Worldco is in 3 buildings on Wall. They must have like 20 floors. And the newest floors at 100 Wall(which are beautiful) are not maximizing floor space.

No reason for a prop firm to be on the most expensive real estate except they were caught up in the hype.

Since you're a member of WorldCo, you should have a copy of their balance sheets.....let us know what the "cash in bank" is.....

And, of course, we share ours with our traders, who wouldn't.

Don

I Missed Boat · Mar 6, 2003

Quote from NYNY:

I heard it was 6 million, but I am sure some (or most) was his, since he sued.

But Worldco has loads of money in the bank. I heard a figure of a few hundred million.

Worldco is not losing money, but their margins blow compared to yesteryear.

Their biggest mistake (in my opinion) is leasing so many floors on Wall Street. I can see wanting your headquarters on Wall St. cause it sounds "cool." But Worldco is in 3 buildings on Wall. They must have like 20 floors. And the newest floors at 100 Wall(which are beautiful) are not maximizing floor space.

No reason for a prop firm to be on the most expensive real estate except they were caught up in the hype.

That's why they just dropped one of their floors, and more may follow I heard.

Newatthis · Mar 7, 2003

Don,
I wouldn't look at "cash on hand". I would look at the owner's equity section and determine what is trader and what is owner. Cash is obscured because of the positions carried. I would also look at depreciation, leases and other potential claims against equity. Bright has 40 offices? Is that 40 leases? What is the total obligation of those leases and what are the leasehold improvements?

Don Bright · Mar 7, 2003

Quote from Newatthis:

Don,
I wouldn't look at "cash on hand". I would look at the owner's equity section and determine what is trader and what is owner. Cash is obscured because of the positions carried. I would also look at depreciation, leases and other potential claims against equity. Bright has 40 offices? Is that 40 leases? What is the total obligation of those leases and what are the leasehold improvements?

Good, I agree....having started out my professional life n public accounting, I try to not get too detailed in my suggestions (don't want to sound like a CPA geek) lol.

Check the equity, check the capital that is placed between each trader ($10Mil in our case)...before a trader can be responsible for other trader losses.

Thanks for the help!!

Don

nitro · Mar 7, 2003

Quote from Newatthis:

Don,
I wouldn't look at "cash on hand". I would look at the owner's equity section and determine what is trader and what is owner. Cash is obscured because of the positions carried. I would also look at depreciation, leases and other potential claims against equity. Bright has 40 offices? Is that 40 leases? What is the total obligation of those leases and what are the leasehold improvements?

Yes...

Thanks for the clarification.

nitro

Newatthis · Mar 7, 2003

At 40 offices, and 5,000 per month rent and 3 years remaining on those leases, I figure 7.2million in lease obligations. Obviously, I am estimating these numbers, but my point is that the absolute number of $10 million you quote taken out of context of the entire balance sheet is not significant. More important than the amount of money the firm has up (even outside the rest of the balance sheet) is the firms risk policies. That is, the probbility of testing that $10 million cushion should also be considered.

VOLUME · Mar 7, 2003

You can't rent a closet for $5,000 a month anywhere near N.Y.

MondoTrader · Mar 7, 2003

If they are still going in a year then they will probably survive the bear market. If they just took some big cash hits and fired the risk manager maybe its once bitten twice shy and they will be on the straight an narrow.