Spot Trading appears to have shut down operations

Discussion in 'Options' started by ajacobson, Mar 9, 2018.

  1. ajacobson

    ajacobson

    Ouch !

    [​IMG]
    Photo by MarketsWiki EducationSteve Brodsky


    Chicago trading firm Spot Trading has closed its doors, according to an online message, after a series of worker reductions in recent months as the industry has consolidated.

    A message on the firm's LinkedIn pagesaid simply: "Spot Trading LLC has closed the firm as of February 28, 2018." The firm's own web site, which had been operating as recently as late last year, also had a simple message: "Please come back later."

    Still, there's no sign it will reopen anytime soon. Attempts to reach founder and chairman Robert Merrilees; as well as Stephen Brodsky, who has been CEO; and Ed Haravon, who has been chief operating officer, were unsuccessful.

    Spot, founded in 1999, had as many as 150 workers at its height, but by last November it was down to fewer than 50 after employee buyouts, exits and layoffs, according to sources who were familiar with the firm.


    The firm was caught in an industrywide downdraft that has led to mergers and closings across the Chicago trading community. Despite an increase in financial markets' volatility this year, there was a dearth of it in prior years, giving traders fewer opportunities to profit from buying and selling stocks, options and futures.

    All trading firms dart in and out of positions in stocks and derivatives in the hopes of making small profits from a large volume of buy and sell orders. Most of the Chicago players are proprietary firms called market-makers who trade for the benefit of their owners, and not outside customers.

    The city became an epicenter of high-speed market-makers over the past two decades, as traders left trading pits at local exchanges CME Group and Cboe Global Markets to set up their own electronic trading firms.

    Increasingly, the industry has become dominated by firms, such DRW Holdings, Citadel Securities and Jump Trading, that can afford the multi-million-dollar computers, software and telecommunications equipment that makes them the fastest in placing orders. Those firms have also gained an advantage in attracting top talent, allowing them to craft algorithmic trading strategies that best their smaller peers.

    Hudson River's purchase of Sun Trading was one of the most recent acquisitions in a series that also included DRW Trading's absorption of Chicago-based Chopper Trading in 2015 and Austin, Texas-based RGM Advisors last year. Chicago-based DV Trading purchased some of Eldorado Trading's assets last year as that firm wound down, and WH Trading and Cheiron Trading merged in 2016.
     
    zdreg likes this.
  2. JSOP

    JSOP

    So WHY didn't they evolve into electronic trading firms as well?
     
  3. how the hell are they closing down with the market doing so great? this is like volante in here.
     
  4. trader99

    trader99

    They DID do electronic trading and were an electronic trading firm! Did you read the article?

    It's just they are not as competitive and fast as the bigger guys. People think HFT and electronic are all peaches and glory! It's not! It's the most competitive industry out there. You need the fastest computers, fiber optics cables, microwave towers, and best programmers, modelers, mathematicians, and physicists on your team just to stay afloat!

    It's capitalism in its purest form. The lesser capitalized players just died off, get bought off, or whittled down...
     
  5. Dang trader99, how can anyone compete? How do YOU compete? I want to trade for a living, but the more I read the more I think I should keep serving people at the restaurant lol.
     
  6. JSOP

    JSOP

    Or become a showgirl in Las Vegas:

     
  7. trader99

    trader99

    LOL. I do NOT compete. I SUCK as a daytrader! That's why I do not depend on it to support myself! I do technology consulting. I trade rather unsuccessfully. Hopefully, I will turn it around in 2018.
     
  8. zdreg

    zdreg

     
  9. zdreg

    zdreg

    thanks for copying and pasting. it makes reading easier.

    original link http://www.chicagobusiness.com/arti...ading-appears-to-have-shut-down-operationswas