Does anyone know what happened to these guys? Didn't they shut down shortly after Tuco went belly up, What happened to the Manning brothers?
This came out yesterday: Scary sh*t for anyone not trading through a BD: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2010/34-61625.pdf
The Manning Brothers still have a large office in Austin, Texas. The office has been growing and is still growing. They just opened a whole new 70 seat trading floor and have it almost half full. A couple of years ago, everyone became licensed along with me at the broker dealer we trade at. I agree with your point that the SEC should have been doing some more investigating of Madoff than wasting their time with a professionally-run trading entity.
it looks like the manning brothers had some tax issues from day trading. wow read threw the whole ruling. the overides in day trading are staggering. many of these firms like tuco were making many millions a year in overides http://taxlaw.typepad.com/files/manning.tcm.wpd.pdf
The SEC is out to get unregistered broker dealers. If you don't trade at a firm that either 1) requires a Series 7 or 2) trades on the CBSX of Philly (some trader don't need a valid Series 7), then you are asking for big trouble. I called the SEC a few weeks ago to ask about the "LLC - sub account" structure after I had trouble getting my money out of WTC. They told me that they were cracking down on these types of firms and expect "a bunch of actions" coming out very soon.