Scoundrels......they told me nothing was wrong yesterday!!! Unbelievable To all HLV traders, We would like to take this time to give you an update on the current situation. At 9:45am Wednesday 5/3/06, we were informed by North American Clearing that the NASD was not satisfied with the margin call being met and that all the requested documents were provided, and that we would will not be permitted to trade again. Brian says: We understand your concerns and apologize for the inconvenience. We are working on consideration to compensate our traders for their lost money. Upon receiving this last notice, The President of HLV Capital, Charles Vaccaro boarded a plane to Florida, to go to the headquarters of North American Clearing, to meet with them as well as the NASD to rectify the situation. They did this on instant messenger...amateurs
You mean they just froze everything firm wide? How many traders does this affect? Kinda scary Who wants to start a pool on how long it will take Don Bright to remind us how well capitalized Bright Trading is and that they've had the same clearing firm since 1978? I'm taking 19:25 EST
Looks like I don't have to, LOL. As always, I don't like to see the traders get stuck or another black eye for the industry as a whole. Don
It is interesting that we were just talking about the trade-offs between self-clearing and clear through an established clearing firm. I am not familiar with HLV as an operation, but it seems like they were trying to meet the bare minimum of the DTC requirements everynight, and ran into margin short-fall trouble yesterday. Still, given 3 day settlement cycle (since the message indicated equities), I would think their firm equity people should have noticed last friday or at least monday, and find a way go over the requirement (a bank bridge loan would suffice). Nevertheless, I am sorry to see another firm run into trouble, this just shows that a firm should focus what they are good at, and not just scrape the bottom of every barrel. Just my $0.02.
Because HLV is not a NASD firm, the NASD has no regulatory power over it. The NASD does not know anything about HLV. Something strange is going on.
Something strange is always going on at HLV, first we can't see our reports for weeks because they are working on something or other (probably manipulating the numbers) then we have to pull teeth to get our checks. Countless sofware problems. Now this, and who knows when it's going to get resolved, I'am just worried about March & April checks. If these clowns decide to close up shop over this all HLV traders including myself won't see a dime. HLV good ridons.
Yessir....timing can be a violent and vicious double edged sword.... Fall on the right side of it in this biz and you can feel like a God. Fall on the wrong side and it hurts....and this time it may sting a bit..... I should have seen the warnings though.... anytime a firm doesnt update P&L for 3 weeks..... anytime a firm doesnt respond to emails.... anytime a firm says nothing is wrong the day they are blasted with a margin call... anytime a firm forces you to switch software...... these are run signals..... Yes I tried.....one month ago I tried....being early to a funeral doesnt get you any points.