No, I'm in Chicago and I have no affiliation with Mr. Bright other then a dinner with him when he comes to Chi-town.
If Bright can still make the same commission with a lower fixed overhead than why do you think it makes sense to keep an office open that there is little demand for due to to traffic, higher desk fees, noise etc. ? I agree that if you are a new trader, then an office is probably a good thing, but there are plenty of distractions at an office as well.
One thing also to keep in mind is the location you are talking about. In Houston and Dallas there is no mass transit system like in NYC and Chicago. The commute is very stressful at times and will take its toll on you physically and mentally.
Pizza Dinner? Mr. Bright is a good guy. Just a business man who's offering a service. There will always be a better priced deal somewhere. It's all about convenience. I'm saving up some money. My prop shop will have lazy boy recliners in it for all traders. You can't get more posh than that! Yeah! Bring back the Dallas office with lazy boy chairs and a team of massage therapists. You can't go wrong there!
That argument is non sequitur. Don's reasons for not doing the office are not due to overhead costs but due to the fact there is no one in the offices!!!!!! It's not easy to maintain an office. I can attest to that. You need to make sure your guys are making money. If they don't make money, they blow out and leave. Then you have to replace them and start all over. At some point, you run out of replacements and the office is empty. Then you say, well, we closed our office due to the fact our traders don't like to drive in traffic. Well here is my response to that. When I worked in NY on Wall Street, we had guys take the train 2 hours each way into Manhattan to trade. You know why? Because we had the best f*cking mentor on the street showing them how to make money. If these guys had to crawl through the desert barefoot with no water 4 hours both ways to get to the office, they would have. Because of what being in that office meant to their bottom line. This is not that complicated folks.
I think you finally got it. I liked the social aspect of my local Bright office, but I wasn't learning anything. They were doing pairs and I wasn't. They didn't seem to have any desire to teach me, and none of our conversations involved trading. It was really just a pleasant, social place to be. But for my time and money, I will chose to trade at home. Now if there was a group that I could learn from, a group that I could trade with, now that would be a different story. It would be exciting to try to develop and refine strategies in a group! Unfortunately Bright doesn't offer anything like that where I live. I'm trying to gather a couple of friends together and create that, but we're all newbies and so we'll miss that key element of learning from skilled traders. If only I didn't like my city and would be willing to move to Chicago
I'm telling you, put me in charge of the operation and we'll have a nice setup in place and the office will never shut down. Who's going to give up a lazy boy chair and a personal massage therapist on staff? That's worth a .01 markup alone! ha
Back to the original point. You are talking about rookie traders needing assistance, I am talking about veterans who no longer need a prop firm in the instrumental relationship. If you become one of the 5% that get it, then you will eventually build your wealth to a point where it is no longer to your benefit to be aligned with a prop firm. 100% absolute freedom.