It is not hard to f a firm, especially one with limited capital and low net cap that is required. I have done it twice professionally.
I had a stock that I was ordered by my COO to direct trades to a third market. They (Andrew, my memory is quite good) shorted against our retail clients on this one stock. I finally figured it out. So I started directing trades to the specialist on the floor to start bidding up the stock.
Good bye. They had to sell their firm to Knight.
I got a tongue lashing from my COO, but I noted that our retail clients that we retained, benefited from better execution.
She was pissed because we had to pay floor fees. She got the bill. Who the f is sending orders to the floor she yelled....