let me see if i understand this.. worldco broke nasd regulation.. but for an agreed amount of money, the nasd is overlooking the matter and worldco was not required to acknowledge their mistake.. hmmm.. seems like a pretty good shakedown to me.. -qwik
yeah the NASD will get you good. It's like, pay this fine or pay ten times that in legal fees trying to deny the charges. and Hitman is right, every firm gets fined. I worked for two of the biggest firms on the street...and they were getting fines all the time. It's just part of doing business.
oh..then it's all part of the 'ol boys club...no prob....as long as you're on the "team"....hahahahaha..."everyone" is doing it....HA!
Hitman, Thanks for the answers to my questions. Sounds good. What is the interest rate I get on my money at Worldco? Your response to the question about trader capital versus firm capital doesn't exclude the possibility that the pooled money is all trader and very little firm. The actual dollar amount is not relevant or is it any of my business, but I think the percentages are. Congrats on the stock! The fines are bs. Every firm gets them. Cost of doing business with the NASD. They need to justify their own existence.
Everyone makes mistakes is the point. Not that we should wink at regulation. Is this the only fine they had or part of a pattern? This fine in and of itself means little without more info. Don't condemn a firm until patterns are established. Do you or does anyone know of any firm that has not been fined for at least one mistake or ommission?
S1929: All I can say is, any time I ask my boss the firm/trader capital split, he says "don't even worry about it". Let's put it this way, I have seen with my own eyes, a trader who traded 400K shares round trip TODAY (to do so you have to take a LOT of shares at a time), with just 30K in his capital account (other than the amount of money he made this pay period which will be withdrawn as a check when it is over). With the possible exception of Schonfeld, I can not think of a "safer" firm to be a part of. If you want to know the exact split, call our office up and ask, I honest don't know, and I honestly don't care. I have seen enough to know that I am in good hands, and I can promise you I will be the first to sense a "break down" when it happens.
I have purposely stayed out of this thread for a while to see what came up. A couple of points do come to mind at this time. Hitman is an ardant supporter and defender of his firm, and I applaud that. The NASD regulations are well known and should be followed if you are required to, that is pretty simple. And yet, compared to NBA fines lately, the WorldCo fine is minor. I am confused by the answers regarding the "owners equity" (or owners amount of capital) in the firm. This is a matter of public record for all members of the firm, and I can not imagine that anyone would join any business without seeing that business' financial statements. I think that if you would simply post the owners equity vs. the traders equity that all questions would be settled. I also asked about your hiring of traders in another post, and perhaps you missed it. We get quite a number of people who want jobs as traders, and if you are in fact hiring this type of person, please let me know if it is ok to send them to you. For whatever reason they don't quite fit into our structure, but perhaps they would fit into yours. Salaried trading positions are quite rare in this day and age, and if WorldCo is doing that we would all like to know about it. And (again, believe it or not), I am sorry to hear about any violations and fines by any firm. The Regulators have been pretty vigilant since 1998, and I know we have had to be extremely cautious to stay in compliance on (so many) issues.
You gotta be a little skeptical about everyone. I work at Worldco as well and am roughly in the same position as hitman. Is there anyone else out there with more information on Worldco? I am sure there are plenty of Worldco traders reading this not responding. We have our good points and bad. I just found this site and think it is a very professional forum for us traders to chat. Heck - we got Don Bright popping his head in here. Or so he says. But I gotta say I think i beleive him. Anyone else vouch for him? Information is valuable and we as traders understand that more than anyone so if there is info out there on Worldco I think we should share it. Just maybe not in public view where all eyes can read it. Is use of private messages big in here?
bigbear =) i think with the mauling that don bright has endured on this board, its pretty safe to say that its him.. an audited dna test would be more conclusive though.. what do you say don? willing to give some blood to the cause?.. (j/k of course) so bigbear.. do you run a desk at worldco? if so, whats your story? how long you been there.. style of trading.. number of people on your team.. etc.. etc.. welcome to ET btw =) -qwik