Really? Wow... I used to work on that 18th floor where Walter's office was. I think Walter was one misuderstood guy and got a lot of flak. He seemed nice and cool to me. Incidently, Worldco was huge. It had trading floors on two buildings on Wall Street. I used to get up at 6 am to commute to Worldco on Wall Street. It was cool to walk onto their trading floor with all the colorful computer screens and CNBC humming in the background. Their trading floors had presence. Everyday they served us breakfast which I picked up before I got to my trading desk. I traded with some great professional people.
ANSWER: Worldco and most other trading firms propagate and uphold high-volume trading strategies. Strategies which seem to increase your odds of winning but don't. High-volume trading is a thing of the past. The very strength that has kept trading firms rich in commissions has been severely diminished. DON'T TRADE HIGH VOLUME STRATEGIES - IT IS A LOSING BATTLE. Funny fact: The Worldco traders I have met are always walking around like the BMOC (Big Man On Campus) when they can tout how many share they traded last month or the day before. After looking at their P&L I simply laughed because they were up maybe $5K per month at best and some were down huge. If they took a hit, it was usually $10K, $40K. $100K DOWN in a month.
so are they gone or not? Far as this market supporting thousands of day prop traders.....program trading accountred for 41% of last quarters volume......how much REAL volume do you guys think is really out there?