Lastly, the TradeKing and Zecco firms combined will account for nearly half of Apex’s accounts, making us one of Apex’s most valued customers, again heightening the attention and service we can expect to receive from the new organization.
That's interesting. TradeKing and Zecco aren't especially big firms. And it's my understanding that Penson clears for a lot of MMs; you think that would account for a lot of business.
Perhaps Penson's clearing business has really gone down the tubes in the past year?
Penson, which posted its eighth consecutive quarterly loss earlier this month, has been trying to improve its balance sheet and bottom line through asset sales and streamlining its operations.
In March, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services downgraded its speculative ratings on Penson Worldwide by five notches on the brokerage and clearing firm's planned debt restructuring and expectations that Penson's business won't materially improve any time soon.
Shares of Penson were halted after hours Thursday. The stock is off 92% over the past 12 months
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See that's what happens when most of the stocks you clear are pennies and you are hit with hedging fees and VaR fees. Hence why they started passing along the costs after the price increases by NSCC that largely targeted Penson in the first place.