so where is Peter Beck and the ex-swifters?

Discussion in 'Prop Firms' started by peregrinecap, Jul 16, 2012.

  1. i think swiftrade is/was a brilliant business idea and venture and that Peter Beck is/was an extremely successful entrepreneur.

    I am wondering what does he do now and where did the thousands of ex-swiftraders go ?
     
  2. The authorities had Peter by the balls, he had to shut down swift but he started a new company: http://www.orbixa.com which basically is just swifttrade in disguise.
     
  3. how about the thousands of ex-swifttrade clients? where do they trade now?
     
  4. What's the connection between Swift and WTS?
     
  5. 7out

    7out

    I believe most Swift/Orbixa offices closed in Canada (North America).

    Of those ex's that traded in the 90's and made good money, they have moved onto more interesting and profitable endeavours. Those that were there through the 2000's are simply bouncing around (thinking the markets will yield the returns of the past).

    (This is simply my view of the 10 or so Swift traders I have known from the 90's +)
     
  6. Their site states: "4,400 individuals with Direct Market Access to over 10 major markets around the world."
     
  7. 7out

    7out

    Fixed Your Post (FYP)
     
  8. guest2

    guest2

    The similar number was 3 years ago when I was trading for them

    Now, in Poland we ve I believe about ~50 traders(I do not count adepts)

    So it should be:
    ;-)
     
  9. Just saw this today:




    .Article Comments (9) more in Markets | Find New $LINKTEXTFIND$ ».
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    By SCOTT PATTERSON
    In the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca, inside a garret up a narrow wooden staircase, four young men in T-shirts spend the day moving rapidly in and out of stocks, trying to ride their shifting momentum for profits. "It's very stressful," says one, dressed in a green T-shirt, blue shorts and Adidas sneakers. "The market is very hard to figure out."

    Enlarge Image

    CloseBrent Foster/National Post

    Financial regulators say Swift's founder, Peter Beck, shown in 2007, took an aggressive stance toward the law.
    .The four traders are part of a world-wide network initially set up by a Toronto-owned firm called Swift Trade Inc. Swift's founder, Peter Beck, turned it into one of the largest day-trading operations in the world over the past decade by aggressively expanding into far-flung locations, from China to Nicaragua to Romania, where he could recruit traders on the cheap.

    Mr. Beck also took an aggressive stance toward the law, say regulators in several countries where his firm has traded. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is expected on Tuesday to announce a settlement with Mr. Beck and an in-house brokerage unit for not establishing a supervisory system to prevent "a pattern of manipulative trading activity," according to a copy of the settlement reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.


    More at:
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...59480.html?KEYWORDS=SEC+Day+Trading#printMode

    Need a login for WSJ, or Facebook I think.

    FYI,

    Don
     
  10. .....



    .....Surfing price momentum isn't the only technique some traders have used, according to regulators. Many engaged in deceptive tactics that caused other investors to pay more for stocks, or sell at lower prices, than they should have, regulators say.

    The Swift story shows how globalized trading, in which firms buy and sell stocks from locations around the world, is stretching regulators' ability to police the markets. Mr. Beck said in an interview that an advantage of doing business in certain far-flung countries is that "there's no oversight" of the firm's traders.

    Finra, the U.S. securities-industry's self-regulatory agency, long suspected Mr. Beck's firm of potentially manipulative activity but only recently was able to take action, in part by collaborating with regulators abroad, according to people familiar with the regulator.

    .....Finra worked with Britain's Financial Services Authority, which in May 2011 imposed a fine of £8 million ($13 million) on Swift and a successor firm, one of its largest fines ever, "for engaging in market abuse." The firm is fighting the decision in U.K. courts.

    The strategy both Finra and the FSA focused on is called layering. In an example of how it works, a trader might buy a small number of shares at $10 and place an order to sell them for $10.10 on an alternative trading venue, such as a dark pool. He also places a series of large orders to buy this same stock on an exchange for higher prices—$10.20, $10.30 and $10.40—"layering" on orders that create an impression of strong demand.

    When this apparent demand prompts other market participants to raise their "buy" orders to $10.10, the trader's "sell" order is executed and he instantly cancels his large buy orders, pocketing a 10-cent-a-share profit.


    The trader also may do the opposite—placing a small buy order at $9.90 and simultaneously several large sell orders at lower prices that will draw the market price downward, the direction the trader now wants it to go.

    Swift "placed the large orders in order to give a false and misleading impression of supply and demand," a May 6, 2011, FSA decision notice said, adding that "manipulative trading was widespread and systematic" and was "directed and controlled" by Swift. An appendix described one instance of London trading in detail.

    "It's like picking somebody's pocket over and over again," Thomas Gira, executive vice president of Finra, said in an interview.


    Anyway, may be of interest to avoid "spoofing" and "layering" ...

    Don
     
    #10     Jul 31, 2012