It it really that hard to answer the question? Why does any business exit a division, lay off workers, or close offices?
As a resident of Texas, I have spoken with Don in the past about the Houston office and it basically came down to that it was not profitable to keep it open because no one wanted to fight the traffic when they could just trade from home. His exact words were: "We are not going to keep that Galleria office open in Houston (too expensive, and most traders prefer remote trading in the area).."
what they are avoiding telling you is that pennies caused the closing of the offices. not saying that remote isn't a good thing. but most new traders starting out fail without being around successful traders. as the automated programs became more and more prevalent, the profits form "scalping" diminished. "jessica" is the smartest person on this thread because "she" smelled something fishy and "she" was right. if the scalping money was still being made they would not have closed almost all of the offices. do you people have any idea what type of losses they took on those offices? the sec supposedly came up with the move to decimals to "help the little guy" and gave the nyse the choice between nickles and pennies. the nyse chose pennies. since then the big banks (like goldman) have captured the majority of volume on the nyse. trust me if bright could go back to the "glory" days they would in a heart beat. this business is extremely difficult when first starting out and there is no substitute for being around successful veterans.
Wow, I finally can agree with something ratboy says. I better mark the date on the calendar. LOL. There is a very simple truth here that perhaps the Brights are not willing to share. And that is, most traders don't make money. Therefore, having an office is a difficult proposition. If you don't or can't bring in new traders every month and every year, you are basically holding onto a decaying option. Meaning, your revenues are going to go to zero. That's the rub. The reasons office are being closed by Bright is not because traders don't want to commute or they want to trade from home. This is absolute horseshit. They want to trade remote because they are not making money. They either can't afford the desk fees, need to get another job on the side, or don't wish to be humiliated by being around other profitable traders when they are not making money. Trust me, any trader worth his salt will choose to be in a productive office over sitting at home by yourself. I say this as a guy that has done both and currently runs an office. I am intimately aware of all the problems that go along with having an office. I don't care how hot it is outside, how much traffic there is, or any other excuse, I will never trade from home ever again. There is nothing in the world that can replace not only the social atmosphere with being around others guys that trade and love what they do, but also the synergies that come from sharing ideas, working on projects together, sharing research and trading ideas and so on. In fact, I'll take this a step further and say probably the number one reason why so many traders fail is because they trade alone and from their homes. Do you guys think any of Goldman's traders trade from their house or apt? How about Susquehanna? SAC? There is a reason why these guys come to work and are around each other. It's because the dividends are far too great. Bob and Don Bright know this. Whether they care to admit it or not is another story. BTW, it doesn't cost that much money to setup an office. Most clearing firms in the world will bend over backwards to sublease their customers space. So the idea that it isn't worth the cost is total BS.
I completely agree with this statement.........there is a synergy that can take place with a good group of guys (yes you too gals), which has a magnified affect on trade systems development. The hard part I have found is finding the right group of people (this can take some time).