The innovator of daytrading dead at 59. anyone know the name of his yacht?? there was a guy here named RAMATOUR who knew, partners with or worked with Harvey--told some seriously funny storys! rest in peace harvey!! End Of An Era: Harvey Houtkin By Bill Singer, Broke And Broker It was with sadness that I learned recently that my former client Harvey Houtkin died this Saturday. Up until the 1990s, Wall Street's old guard was entrenched at the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Under the banner of market stability, those market mainstays extracted a quarter of a point here and a half of a point there. They kept the spread based upon an archaic formula of 1/16ths, 1/8ths, 1/4s, and similar fractions. Further, the brokerage industry was a chokepoint through which all orders intended for execution had to pass, and the tribute exacted on such order flow was a price-fixed commission system. Of course, in 1987 when the stock market crashed, all those vaunted guardians of market stability just let the phones ring on their market making desks. Hey, you didn't have to fill any order that you didn't hear over the phone. Harvey stood in the tidewaters of Wall Street and saw the ebb and flow. He saw an outdated industry that needed to be computerized and reoriented to interface with the Internet, and he helped create the technological infrastructure that paved the way for ECNs and direct access trading. Without the combativeness of Harvey Houtkin, it is unlikely that Professors Christie and Schultz would have been motivated to publish their historic market critique in 1995. And without that landmark paper, it is doubtful that the United States Department of Justice's Antitrust case against NASDAQ's top 24 market makers or the contemporaneous Securities and Exchange Commission's 21(a) Report citing NASD/NASDAQ for improper market activity and regulatory conduct would have materialized. Yes, Harvey relished the term "SOES Bandit"--- much to my chagrin as his outside counsel from 1995 to 2000. In those days, defending Harvey was tantamount to taking on the entire regulatory world. A corrupt and corrupted regulatory system came crashing down upon the fledgling day-trading and ECN community. As now documented in the landmark In the Matter of the Appeal of Domestic Securities http://sec.gov/litigation/opinions/3437559.txt , Houtkin and his businesses were singled out by biased regulators, but we climbed into the ring, went toe to toe, and won! The Antitrust Division's case, the historic $1 billion dollar class action settlement, and the SEC's damning 21(a) Report were more icing on the cake. Shortly after I represented Harvey before the Senate during testimony in connection with the day-trading investigation, Harvey and I had an acrimonious parting in 2000. Those were difficult times for the SOES and ECN communities--the Tech Wreck was crashing down upon the Street and lurid disclosures of abuses by many day-trading firms filled the news. Before you jump the gun and roll your eyes, let me finish my point here -- I'm not about to pretend that the SOES community was motivated solely by charitable instincts. There were some bad folks in the biz and too many small-fry investors lost their life savings. Nonetheless, the hated ECNs showed staying power and soon grew in stature to take on both the NYSE and NASD--and now ARCA and Instinet are critical components of their once larger foes. And the SOES Bandits? Well, perhaps they were of a time, as the saying goes. Most of the old firms collapsed or were subsumed into larger competitors. Today, scratch beneath the surface of a Charles Schwab or an E*Trade and you'll likely find the remnant of a SOES Bandit. No, Harvey was never the easiest guy to get along with. Like many visionaries, he brooked little debate. However, such are the catalysts of our society. Not always lovable. Not always modest. However, they strike the flint that sets off the sparks that create new businesses and wealth. True, sometimes those
I am VERY saddened by Harvey's early passing, it has taken a tremendous toll on my family and I. The name of his 120' yacht is "SEC Won't Let Me Be!" In due time I will post a conglomeration of his history and contributions. Harvey Houtkin and Mark Shefts liberated the spreads for all traders and investors, and established a level playing field for every market participant, and they did so at their expense. God Bless Harvey's soul and his family...
Sorry to hear about Harvey. The truth behind the day trading is it was harvey and shelly and in early 1990 day trading started in an apartment in heartland village staten island. Shelly open datek after and harvey open all tech. Harvey started the ATTN ecn and shelly behind jeff created ISLD ecn which came from staten island and the genius behind isld was josh. From one of the soes bandits RIP Harvey.
The founding father and pioneer of a profession. Thank you for your accomplishments harvey, and rest in peace.
I started my daytrading career in an Alltech office in San Diego in 1996. I was lucky they did not charge me for the training because i signed up early and had a little experience. By they harvey's operation exhibited a total lack of integrity. The training Harvey's guys put on was very close to being a scam.
HARVEY IRA HOUTKIN, 59 Author of books on stock trading Posted on Thu, Jul. 31, 2008reprint print email Facebook Digg del.icio.us AIM BY ELINOR J. BRECHER ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com Harvey Ira Houtkin of Aventura, known as the ''father of day trading'' and author of several books about SOES -- the Small Order Execution System -- is dead at 59. His titles include The SOES Bandit's Guide: Day Trading in the 21st Century, published in 1995, and Secrets of the Soes Bandit: Harvey Houtkin Reveals His Battle-Tested Electronic Trading Techniques, three years later. His latest, Wall Street's Buried Treasure: The Low-Priced Value Investing Approach to Finding Great Stocks, was just published by John Wiley & Sons. A relative said Houtkin died Friday of ''complications from surgery.'' The family declined to be interviewed. A book-jacket bio says that Houtkin's ``decade-long utilization of NASDAQ's SOES system for electronic day trading laid the foundation for today's electronic trading revolution. ``He has been quoted and/or written about in numerous periodicals including Time, Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal and The London Financial Times, and appears regularly on television and at seminars.'' BARUCH GRAD An online corporate biography says that Houtkin graduated from Baruch College of the City University of New York in 1970, and three years later earned a master's degree in business administration. He founded Arbor EnTech Corp. in October 1980, ''held a seat on the New York Stock Exchange from 1984 to 1988,'' then in 1993 became chairman/CEO of All-Tech Direct Inc. All-Tech was among the companies that won a 1993 federal appeals court case forcing the Securities and Exchange Commission to give small investors greater access to SOES. Houtkin, who named his 90-foot yacht the Soes Princess, was as controversial as he was successful. In 2000, he testified before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which held hearings called, ``Day Trading: Everyone Gambles But the House.'' The outspoken, often dramatic Houtkin called them an ''ambush'' and ''a crucifixion.'' In a CNN interview afterward, Houtkin said: ``This was not an investigation. . . . They knew exactly what was going to happen before it even started.'' The hearings came months after an infuriated All-Tech customer shot 21 people at two Atlanta brokerage offices, one of them All-Tech's. Nine people died before Mark O. Barton killed himself. The following month, the National Association of Securities Dealers charged Houtkin and other All-Tech executives with advertising- regulation violations and failure to properly supervise employees. In 2003, Houtkin and his wife, Sherry, moved to Mediterranean Village One, a low-rise complex on Williams Island. Neighbor Edward Davis served with him on the complex's board. `ALWAYS HONEST' Houtkin ''discovered the process'' that made day trading possible, Davis said. On the board, ''he was always honest and to the point of supporting what was best for everybody,'' Davis said. ``Despite his bombast, he never spoke badly of anyone, even those he stirred up. . . . He was not personally self-aggrandizing.'' Houtkin also served on the Williams Island Property Owners Association board, where 'he was always on the side of, `Open the books and let's see where the money is being spent,' '' Davis said. Houtkin ''didn't believe in wasting money,'' Davis said. ``His tailor of choice was JCPenney. He drove a Hyundai and called it his BMW.'' In addition to his wife, Houtkin is survived by mother Esther Houtkin, sons Stuart, Brad and Michael; and sisters Wanda Shefts and Adria Marcus. A funeral will be held at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Levitt Weinstein Memorial Chapel, 18840 W. Dixie Hwy., North Miami Beach.
They charged a fee to teach trading and it was very basic. Back then it was the only way to get in. It could have been worse but in this business who doesn't con people? I have been taken advantage of for years and lied to and ripped off! They would charge me for cancel orders at one time.
yes - they had guys come out and act like you could soes in at will- get filled and make money. They taught and office full of people to trade the big cap nazz like intc dell msft csco etc. They also said look at the graphs and don't get shaken out by the jiggles. They said plenty of guys were killing it doing what they said. Shefts even came out and gave a bullshit useless lecture although I do not recall the substance. What they did not tell you was that you could not get filled soesing on the big stocks during moves. The market makers could collect orders and hold for their max time... 30-40 seconds (I learned this later from guys in my office) At the end of the time if they could flip it out to instinet they did. If not they would cancel. They were able to make free quarters like that all the time. My friend who was good would flip out half and try to hold the rest. -- We would be sitting back in the all tech office waiting to get our fill - frequently it came back down 3/8ths. It got a little better when they gave access to instinet and island. But I left and went to Bright trading within a month to two. Had I not made money swing trading before I got there I might have just quit. It was a total sham. Rob the owner with some apparent integrity left fairly quickly to start RMB trading and Barry was left to milk commissions out of fish until he had to testify in front of congress. I will say this - neither barry or rob ever lied to me if you asked them pointed questions - which is why I never really blasted them. But all tech training was a sham apparently designed to suck commissions out of people. Actually the name of the trading company was something different but the trainer was Harvey's son in law or family friend. For those who know he was the former motorcycle garage guy.