Futex - company's financial situation

You could ask trader dante via social media, he must know people who work(ed) there

A whole bunch of them post on twitter under futexlive handle, only one I know still active is brannigan @bjb_futexlive .....though they are still sending out marketing emails for trader courses, now at 70% discount ffs.

It's not even as if anyone lost a chunk it was just being siphoned off if what has been said so far is true. A modern day ponzi. That's why Marco was so hard to get hold of.
 
I guess selling training courses is a good indicator that the previous business model doesn't work so well these days.
 
I guess selling training courses is a good indicator that the previous business model doesn't work so well these days.

I don't know what the model is unless it's embezzlement. Not having the money to pay a trader his earnings? Hmmm if they were knowingly operating whilst insolvent that makes the directors personally liable.
 
Anyone that knows what is going on at Futex right now has been told in confidence.

So until announcements are made, it's unlikely any accurate gossip will come through.

Bit too early to write them off....
 
Anyone that knows what is going on at Futex right now has been told in confidence.

So until announcements are made, it's unlikely any accurate gossip will come through.

Bit too early to write them off....

The 'accurate gossip' is traders couldn't withdraw their cash.

I agree, we don't have full info, but theres enough reason to speculate that they're are ****ed.
 
http://www.profit-loss.com/articles/news/buy-side/injunction-halts-trading-at-futex

Can't find any more info. Have emailed the person I know there but lost his number as my new phone dropped a whole bunch of them as they weren't saved to the SIM on my old phone.
A mate of mine who knew someone who used to work there has been told that they have 'gone bust' but could not get any more info other than that this ex-trader at futex said "they book sh*t." An interpretation of that=they don't book decent profits which explains their courses to make income. So it's all smoke and mirrors.

Judging from the info it appears a trader tried to take money out and found out that he/she couldn't, most likely due to lack of funds in the comingled accounts (I don't think trader funds were segregated at the futex level, but were segregated at the Clearer (Marex) level). Hence the injunction. Shocking stuff.
I am a little curious, this company may be in trouble but they clearly had a good phase at some point... Is it not the same traders that sit with them are suppose to make them money? So how come they are all complaining? I am not very clear on this, maybe someone else can shed light.

I will never run a prop firm, especially in London not only is the UK culture one built solidly around productive jobs like plumbing, building and that kind of thing with the rest piling into Real estate and high finance in the big 4, mainly IT because the rest of the jobs are just Europeans coming over from Germany and other parts of Europe. So to run a firm that speculates in assets feels a little daft, it is more of an American dream. In the UK the idea is to get a job with a brand name to put on your CV. So I am not surprised if they are now branded as a scam. As an individual you can do well speculating if you know what you are doing but brokers don't make it easy. To start hiring people that's just another story.

There are a few of them offering courses, I have nothing against this because in truth the worst of them can educate the army of non-educated Forex traders to a descent standard. They should have probably stuck to selling courses and trading privately. The two don't mix, either you are teacher of science or a scientist, don't think you can be a good teacher if you concerned about practising your science and vice versa, a student will feel like a fly buzzing in your ear. Well, I guess they are finding out the hard way. In my opinion people want to trade for a job, they should get their own cash and set up shop or get a job.
 
"The company behind Futex is Independent Derivative Traders Ltd. As of 31 May 2014 they had exactly £1,049,610 of current assets on their balance sheet. Considering they had about 70 traders at that time, that's only £15,000 per trader. That's enough margin for around 10 lots of FESX. This means the company can't give its traders the size they would need in order to achieve P&L necessary for a decent living."

According to an article in the Sunday Times this weekend, a trader was trying to take out millions. So if that was their real assets then they were well short. Weird weird weird.
 
A whole bunch of them post on twitter under futexlive handle, only one I know still active is brannigan @bjb_futexlive .....though they are still sending out marketing emails for trader courses, now at 70% discount ffs.

It's not even as if anyone lost a chunk it was just being siphoned off if what has been said so far is true. A modern day ponzi. That's why Marco was so hard to get hold of.

@ bjb_futexlive started at a different prop firm today. Don't know if he is still at futexlive
 
A whole bunch of them post on twitter under futexlive handle, only one I know still active is brannigan @bjb_futexlive .....though they are still sending out marketing emails for trader courses, now at 70% discount ffs.

It's not even as if anyone lost a chunk it was just being siphoned off if what has been said so far is true. A modern day ponzi. That's why Marco was so hard to get hold of.

If that is the case does that mean that they were knowingly operating at a loss and not telling the traders? Let alone those who put money in to trade through them (I nearly did this myself).
 
Firm where ‘Flash Crash trader’ first worked fails
Harry Wilson, City Editor
June 3 2016, 12:01am, The Times



The firm that taught Navinder Sarao, the alleged Flash Crash trader, how to play the markets has gone bust after one of its largest traders took out an injunction against it, having been told that he was unable to withdraw millions of pounds of his own money from it.

Futex is understood to have called in administrators last month after the action taken by Gabriele Gandini, an algorithmic trader who told the firm that he wanted to leave.

The City of London-based business came to prominence last year after it was revealed as the place where Mr Sarao learned to trade and earned his initial multimillion-pound fortune as a big player on the financial futures market.

In common with many proprietary trading businesses, Futex pooled its traders’ money with larger and more successful traders’ capital being used to help to fund stakes for those starting out.

New junior traders are not paid a wage but can keep half of what they earn in trading profits. The more successful a trader becomes the greater the proportion of profits they can keep, with so-called elite traders retaining up to 95 per cent of their profits.

Futex is understood to have been under pressure since Lee Gibbs, its star trader, left last year, withdrawing his trading account, which was understood to be worth as much as £30 million.

Mr Gibbs’s funds were a big source of trading capital for the business and his departure led to Futex shutting its Woking office and moving its traders to an office in the Square Mile of London.

Companies House accounts for a firm linked to Gabriele Gandini show that it had net assets as of March 31, 2015, of nearly £620,000, up more than £200,000 year on year. The latest accounts for Gabriele Gandini Ltd have yet to be filed and are listed as overdue.

Contacted by The Times, Marco Rossi, a founder of Futex, declined to comment on the company’s administration. Dan Goldberg, a senior manager, did not reply to an email seeking comment. Calls and a message to Futex’s London office went unanswered.

Futexlive, Futex’s YouTube channel, has not been updated since May 25. However, subscribers to the Futexlive mailing list received emails offering a 60 per cent discount on a £1,499 “virtual intensive trader training programme” for June 6 as part of what the firm said was a “72 hour flash sale”.
 
Futex administrator finds £4.7m shortfall


The administrators of defunct prop trading firm Futex reported on Friday a £4.7 million shortfall between the money held in the firm's clearing account and the cash owed to creditors including former Futex traders.

The report, from Futex administrators Cork Gully, named nearly 60 claimants in the case, which arose following an injunction by one of the firm's trader which led to the collapse of the company.

The administrators report said: "We note that as at the date of the injunction, the total owed to traders (approximately £5.5m) exceeded the total held in the company’s Marex Accounts (approximately £800k) by circa £4.7m."
 
ouch

http://www.fow.com/3573375/Futex-funds-at-Marex-the-priority-for-administrator.html

Establishing legal ownership of the £800,000 held in the Futex account at clearer Marex Spectron and redistributing it to the trading firm's creditors is the top priority for the administrators of Futex's parent comapny, according to sources close to the process.

A source close to the administrator said a decision over the ownership of the funds held in the Marex account will be "the priority for the administrators". The source added: "The cash is available so dealing with this first means that these funds can be distributed sooner."

As reported by FOW on Friday, Cork Gully, administrators to Futex's holding company Independent Derivative Traders (IDT) said: "We note that as at the date of the injunction, the total owed to traders (approximately £5.5m) exceeded the total held in the company’s Marex Accounts (approximately £800k) by circa £4.7m."
 
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