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Who Is 'Latour Trading' And How Dare They Upstage Goldman?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/10/2011 17:11 -0400

As long-term readers recall, the observation of Goldman's dominant presence in the NYSE's weekly program trading reports by Zero Hedge back in early 2009 was one of the key drivers that set in motion the backlash against algorithmic trading and HFT which back in 2009 was the pinnacle of fringe topics and has since become a daily talking point and market scapegoat du jour on days when stocks are down (but never up). It also drew attention to Goldman's prop trading division which Zero Hedge was the first and only vocal opponent of, and has since been demolished courtesy of the Volcker Rule, an event which both Moody's and Alliance Bernstein now say could cost the bank dearly in top and bottom line, yet which Goldman told us on the record "represents approximately 10% of this year’s reported net revenue." Guess it was more, huh... Yet the same NYSE weekly program trading update indicates that Goldman, up until now a monolith in NYSE program trading, has just lost its crown in that field as well. The new king. A firm called Latour Trading, which in the last week traded 484.6 million shares in principal strategies. Which begs the question: just who is this Latour Trading which dares to upstage the firm that does god's work on earth. Alas, their website has been less than forthright. Inquiring minds certainly want to know.

From the NYSE:

- advertisements -

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:13 | 1759094 abugarance

probably a blankenstein+gary cohen new PA trading vehicle

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:20 | 1759121 Silver Bug

Perhaps a shadow firm?

http://silverliberationarmy.blogspot.com/

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:37 | 1759148 Earl of Chiswick

David Faucon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOYYkT-TakI

formerly of

Tower Research Capital LLC

and then the story becomes to bizzaro to say any more just search Samarth Agrawal

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:42 | 1759169 beastie

You nailed it but everyone will ignore your comment. Also seem to have ties to Limewire.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:48 | 1759192 Earl of Chiswick

Dear Judge Rakoff

LOL

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:52 | 1759205 What does it al...

I don't understand... Revenue does not mean profit. Volume traded does not mean profit either....

This reminds me of Groupon, where they can claim almost half a billion dollar in revenue, except still net negative. Regardless, thanks to Earl of Chiswick info, it is evident that NYSE/ARCA "floor" members are just a fascade... There is no point having a floor any more, everything is electronic.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:55 | 1759209 gmrpeabody

They are the new PPT.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:14 | 1759244 phyuckyiu

The link to latour leads to a blank page for me. I love it when Zero Hedge makes them run for cover. Definitely a front company, why bother hiding the fraud, nobody gives a shit!

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:25 | 1759264 Pbn2Au

+1 Blank page indeed. Check out the source for the page...<HTML></HTML> seriously

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 19:21 | 1759397 hack3434

LOL WTF?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 19:41 | 1759431 SDRII

Brewster Jennings & Associates (google it)

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:04 | 1759691 Freddie

What is this? A CIA air cargo and algo trading company? The NSA computers on their lunch break?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:17 | 1759714 FEDbuster

Bernake & Co.?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 23:00 | 1759828 CuriousPasserby

That's what I immediately thought. They think they have to do something to stop the impending doom.

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 04:01 | 1760303 phyuckyiu

Limewire was a good place to get midget pr0n. Seems like a perfect fit, the SEC will get preferential torrent bandwith.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:25 | 1759502 Kayman

Latour de blanche....

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:17 | 1759249 CIABS

tyler(s):

sorry to nitpick, but you should improve your proofreading. this headline asks the very interesting question "who" is latour trading, but in the body of the piece you write "how" instead of "who". yeah, we all know what you meant, but this happens a lot, and it doesn't reflect well on your outstanding website.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:22 | 1759259 JohnG

Have you made a donation to ZH lately? No?

Complaining and nitpicking over "vocabulary" is a sorry way to support free information.

There's a link at the top for donations.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:56 | 1759336 knukles

tyler(s) represent(s) a proper name(s) and thus should be capitalized as per; Tyler(s)

Dipwad.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 19:58 | 1759452 Problem Is

Nice Bitch-Slap, knuckle(s)...

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 04:03 | 1760305 phyuckyiu

I am having fun yet now.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 21:18 | 1759611 jeff montanye

as a picker of nits myself, i don't think you're sorry. disingenuous, yes.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 21:49 | 1759667 colfaxcap

Bozo Alert (CIABS)

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:37 | 1759287 JustSpinIt

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aI7Vgoya5Bak&refer=exclusive

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:37 | 1759288 JustSpinIt

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aI7Vgoya5Bak&refer=exclusive

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:45 | 1759176 The Deleuzian

Holy Cow!!! Thanx for sharing E of Chi

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:45 | 1759179 POTUS

David Faucon - "person credited with designing SocGen's original HFT program." Left SocGen with 4 others to go to Tower -- last SocGen HFT guy to leave was dumb enough to actually try and take the HFT code with him. So............ he developed HFT program for large French Bank -- so we know he knows how to use leverage (lots of leverage) and he should be adept at hiding trades ... should make for interesting story line

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:13 | 1759239 disabledvet

Hey it's the President!

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 09:48 | 1760719 imaginalis

More HFT? David FaucOFF!

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 19:25 | 1759404 papaswamp

Mark Gorton is the bigwig and main man of Tower and Limewire, LimeGroup, etc.. Got his EE from Yale, masters at Stanford. Was an EE for Martin Marietta...then Credit Sussie (hmmm).

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:50 | 1759556 euclidean

EoC - a big thanks

US jury starts hearing SocGen code theft case http://is.gd/zJY97K

"testified that Tower had wooed Agrawal in part to establish a competitor within the company to David Faucon, the person credited with designing the original SocGen system. Faucon is chief executive of an arm of Tower." ... "copying and printing the Societe Generale code last year so he could build a similar system for Tower Research Capital LLC hedge fund, which had offered him a job."

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 21:54 | 1759676 IrritableBowels

Nailed it.

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 06:26 | 1760355 Wakanda

Nice sleuthing E of C! Bizzaro world indeed.

6 days until Black Monday II

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:54 | 1759207 ReadySteadyGo

http://www.tower-research.com/

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 19:48 | 1759443 ziggy59

"Key Management Managing Director Mark Gorton worked in the proprietary trading department of Credit Suisse First Boston. Mark traded there for 4 1/2 years and built sophisticated tools used to analyze the markets. In the spring of 1998, he left Credit Suisse First Boston to set up Tower Research Capital LLC. Mr. Gorton's professional and educational background provides an unusual combination of math skills and financial knowledge to create and orchestrate the trading strategies utilized at Tower."

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:43 | 1759173 max2205

Goldman mini-me

Backwards RUOTAL. ROOTER

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 19:10 | 1759372 Don Birnam

" 'Who are they ?' Who do you think we are !"

Behold the trading arm of Skynet...

http://www.moviespad.com/photos/terminator-2-judgment-day-movie-scene-bd...

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:13 | 1759476 ADirtyChapCalle...

Listen up boys, girls, and Chairsatans.

Tower Research Capital, according to the NFA, has 5 people of 10 listed with 10% or more financial interest [ http://www.nfa.futures.org/BasicNet/Details.aspx?entityid=GKhDZYk5r5s%3d ]. They are as follows:

William Chuang - David Faucon - John Martello - Nicolas Niquet - David Wichs .

Now, I'm just some 19 year old peon with an interest in the kind of financial porn that ZH puts out, so some fellow ZH'ers will have to help me with a few things.

When you go to each of these guy's pages, towards the bottom it gives two dates along with 'Principal Pending' and 'Principal Approved.' From what I can gather, this signals when they begin their affiliation with the firm, but again, I need some help navigating this financial speak. But oddly enough, all of these guys got on board (I think?) with Tower recently all within weeks of one another.

Chuang - Pending - 5/9/2011
Approved - 6/2/2011

Faucon - Pending - 5/9/2011
Approved - 5/25/2011

Martello - Pending - 5/31/2011
Approved - 6/21/2011

Niquet - Pending - 8/16/2011
Approved - 9/2/2011

Wichs - Approved - 4/28/2011

Wichs with Tower Research Capital Europe - Pending - 4/16/2004
Approved - 7/19/2004

Curiously enough, Gorton himself does not have a 10% more interest in Tower. In fact, Chuagn, Faucon, Martello, and Niquet all have a 10% or more interest but have all been there the shortest amount of time. Who, I wonder, had such high stakes before these stooges came along?

I've also managed to dig up Latour's address and phone number. Their address is 10th floor, 377 Broadway, New York, NY 10013. The phone number is (212) 219-6000.

Surprisingly enough, Tower Research lists themselves at the same address, except on the 11th floor. And the phone number? You guessed it - (212) 219-6000.

So the two are literally on top of each other. And it also seems, at least to me, that whoever is pulling the strings at Tower is doing the same at Latour.

The plot thickens yet again when it is discovered that Lime Brokerage also had the same number on the list as Latour (admittedly, it is listed as (212) 219-600, but the lack of a single digit does not mislead the hounds). The page which Lime and Latour's phone numbers listed on, when clicked through google, lead straight to the NYSE page. But thanks to cache, we still have the archives of the internet. Oddly enough, the page was last updated on October 1st, 2011 (presumably when it was rerouted or destroyed). Why, then, is Lime's phone number --a mere 9 days later-- (212) 824-5000? Shell companies galore, or what? I'm still new to all of this, so again, help me out.

I've also found a site that shows their SEC filings, but you've got to be a member to see them. So if any ZH'ers are a member of MarketBrief, follow the link and let us know what you find ( http://marketbrief.com/latour-trading-llc?secwatch ).

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:32 | 1759524 Kayman

ADirtyChapCalle...

Thanks for the sleuthing. Who are they ? One of the many cockroaches slithering around on Wall Street. Without the Fed (and the Fed's unlimited backing from the American taxpayer) they would all be crushed under the Heel of a Free Market.

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 09:50 | 1760730 Quadlet

What they pay...

http://salaryquest.com/job-senior-trader-at-latour-trading-llc-in-new-york-state-ny-salary/I-200-09341-567501/

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 21:15 | 1759602 azusgm

http://sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001467283&own...

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 21:20 | 1759606 Earl of Chiswick

splendid work adi

isn't it wonderful when Master ZH tosses us a bone to gnaw on ... splendid indeed

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 21:39 | 1759654 dark pools of soros

Boiler Room for Algos that don't even have to con anyone directly.. just get the FED to pawn off any of their bad bets to the 'sophisticated sheeple'

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:15 | 1759706 GFKjunior

This is pretty amazing.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 23:26 | 1759918 CuriousPasserby

Having the same phone number is eaxy to explain. Oftentimes new businesses start out sharing a phone/desk/secretary with other small businesses until they do well enough to afford their own.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 23:58 | 1760009 Bolweevil

More trades than the Golden Sack and they can't afford a phone? You're banned from posting for one week.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:48 | 1759553 philipat

I wonder if there is an equivalent "Other Income" entry in the Squid's PNL?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:06 | 1759695 Akrunner907

Go talk with Nicolas Mascio, he can help shed some light on them. He handled 106R transfers for Latour in 2009.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:33 | 1759748 mw1

A copy of their 2010 audited financial statements as filed with the SEC: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/vprr/11/9999999997-11-005691

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 01:10 | 1760161 ADirtyChapCalle...

How can Latour, with $400 million and some change, compete with GS at all?

Also, from the statement:

"Latour Trading LLC (the “Company”) is limited liability company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Tower Research Capital Investments LLC (the “Parent”). Tower Research Capital LLC is the managing member (“Managing Member”) of the Company. The Company’s operations consist primarily of proprietary trading in, but not limited to, equities and futures markets in the United States

The Company is a broker-dealer registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and is a member of the CBOE Stock Exchange (“CBSX”), which is its designated examining authority."

So they do prop trading, but what else besides equities and futures?

To anyone with legal experience, are they only required to disclose that they trade in equities and futures while legally being able to trade in other instruments? The whole "but not limited to" leaves a lot of room to squirm.

Also, the phone number that was listed by NYSE does not match up to the one filed to the SEC, which is (917) 388-8619. This is a cell phone number. Who runs a $400 million operation from a cell phone?! Or is this standard industry procedure or something?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:16 | 1759100 espirit

He who has the fastest algo's wins. The rest are bagholders.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:19 | 1759104 Surly Bear

Great, ya'll killed their site....

Registrant: Tower Research Capital

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:17 | 1759105 Racer

AKA the PPT.... perhaps?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:17 | 1759106 s2man

Chinese perhaps? For some reason, I always suspect the Chinese, lately.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:20 | 1759122 Crack-up Boom

nah - you're thinking of La Choy.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:36 | 1759158 legal eagle

That was very clever crack-up....boom

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:52 | 1759204 Crack-up Boom

Thanks - one wordsmith to another.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:10 | 1759234 narapoiddyslexia

I think there are quite a few of us here. Res ipsa loquitor.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:18 | 1759251 What does it al...

You can't help it.

Chinese and Russian Quants dominate the space. I will bet that there are LOTS of them. Just check out the balcony from the youtube video.

You have to fight brain power with brain power...

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:18 | 1759108 SilverIsKing

Latour's Motto:

"You can't see us...but we're here."

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 19:03 | 1759352 knukles

Sorta like my wifie asking if I've just taken a poop?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:27 | 1759734 spekulatn

F***.... dat waz funny, knukles!

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:19 | 1759117 slaughterer

Chinese. Or the Fed.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:24 | 1759118 Strom

http://exchanges.nyx.com/new-york-stock-exchange/latour-trading-nyse

Latour Trading, LLC visits the NYSE in celebration of the company's NYSE and Amex equity membership. The company is also an NYSE Arca member and recently became active in NYSE's LMM program. In honor of the occasion, CEO David Faucon rings The Opening Bell

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:22 | 1759119 aviat72

La-tour is anglicized of La Tourre as in the Fabulous Fab.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:20 | 1759120 Belarus

Must be the entity that Ben uses to ramp his sole mandate: The Russell 2000 to infinity.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:37 | 1759286 buzzsaw99

anagram: rut algo darn it

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:21 | 1759124 somethingelse

I've had Chateau LaTour bordeaux (back when i had money) good stuff

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 21:23 | 1759614 Aguadulce

Is that a Rothschild winery by chance?

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 00:45 | 1760130 slewie the pi-rat

i think the chairsatan gave the IMF its own Plunge Protection Division, which explains why ms lastrange lagarde has been so red patent-leather freaking happy since jackson hole

L0L!

imo, this is the french robot trading brigade doing its part for the central planners' "markets"

NATO banksters. with precision "surgical" targeting. what could possibly go wrong?

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 05:21 | 1760335 Tompooz

Is it possible to find out what trades they have been focusing on?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:21 | 1759126 DoctorOfLove

Doesn't beg the question. It raises the question.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:00 | 1759220 NotApplicable

But is that as bad as a grammar Nazi?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 19:05 | 1759360 knukles

No, it's different. A question Nazi is like your wife pestering the living shit out of you when you're trying to watch a Yankees or Bears game.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:36 | 1759531 Kayman

knukles

Just for giggles, tell your wife, "if you ever had anything interesting to say, I'd be listening" My wife loves to hear it...

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:21 | 1759127 baseball13

Dig Deep you denizens of Zero Hedge!

http://www.cmegroup.com/company/membership/membernet/files/20091005_CBT_Mailing.pdf

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:27 | 1759142 Fanatic

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nick-mascio/4/874/a0b

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:22 | 1759129 gimli

I got the website:

Latour Trading

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:11 | 1759470 Problem Is

+1... gimli...

A bearded fucker with a sense of humor...

The Bernank could learn from you...

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:33 | 1759747 spekulatn

You bastards are on fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhaap42I2sc

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:23 | 1759132 ABG LINE

Lol!

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:26 | 1759136 DutchR

Doesn't James Bond drink Latour....

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:02 | 1759226 Steaming_Wookie_Doo

I think it was Bollinger (but that's for champagne)

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:26 | 1759137 s2man

http://exchanges.nyx.com/latour-trading

no info. 1,461 views. probably 1460 in the last two minutes.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:26 | 1759138 Lady Heather...UNCLE

where's Waddell Reed?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:27 | 1759139 Mark of Zerro

Two bankers at the Monopoly Board? Let's see who throws down first.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:34 | 1759154 s2man

short, short game rules: one player is selected as banker. he/she wins

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:31 | 1759146 M.B. Drapier

No relation to Bruno Latour, I'm sure...

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 07:36 | 1760436 Cultural Capital

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:33 | 1759153 goldfreak

I guess Anonymous didn't do so well attacking the NYSE today?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:49 | 1759199 Dapper Dan

Yes the did,

'Anonymous' takes down NYSE.com for 1 minute "Hactivists" take down NYSE.com as an extension of the 'Occupy Wall Street'

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-anonymous-takes-down-nysecom-for-1-minute-20111010,0,1627656.story

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:40 | 1759156 papaswamp

Latour think...Lime Brokerage...think Electrical Engineer...think DoD contractors Martin Marietta/Lockheed....think Nimbis...think SIMD

The shell companies these days...too easy

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:36 | 1759157 bob_dabolina

Their website is elegant and simple. I wonder who designed it.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:37 | 1759159 The Deleuzian

God the 'Centralization' meme is strong...They have even suckered/payed a bunch of protestors to represent the opposition...Hats off to the establishment...Are you hiring?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:39 | 1759160 Yen Cross

The " Red Zone" Goldies plug, works fore { SKIN} me.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:39 | 1759161 Alvaro de Esteban

About Latour and his chief David Faucon:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/11/09/socgen-secrets-idUSN0999924201...

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:45 | 1759178 papaswamp

Latour is under Tower Research Capital (great name if you think about it) owned by Mark Gorton...former electrical engineer with Martin Marietta/Lockheed...and surprise, Credit Suisse....now why would brokerages need EE's? especially those involved in supercomputer designs.....fuck this is a damn movie if I ever saw one.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:53 | 1759206 Strom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Gorton

Also the creator and owner of LimeWire...interesting stuff.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:18 | 1759252 gmrpeabody

Very...

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 01:36 | 1760190 Bartanist

So, reassure me that Limewire does not have applications in the espionage world.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:42 | 1759166 Strom

CEO is David Facoun - ENSAE class of 2001.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:46 | 1759185 Looney

Latour Trading, a.k.a. Tower Reserch Capital, is an ALgo/HFT http://www.tower-research.com/

Just wondering... if I want to attend one of their AA (as Algorithmic Anonymous) meetings, do I need a referral from a shrink or a court order? ;-)

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 19:13 | 1759381 knukles

Depends on if it's open, women only, mens stag, gay, lesbian, Spanish speaking, mulitple diagnosis, closed or even for the math incompetent. I believe that this month's Secretary is The Count.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:48 | 1759191 The Deleuzian

This is true cloak and dagger stuff...Spy vs. Spy weren't even close...More like Moonraker

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:49 | 1759195 Strom

So, he was at SocGen, and then moved to head Latour, which is a part of Tower Research Capital.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:55 | 1759208 topcallingtroll

Good work Zero-heads!

I can always count on the readership to solve any mystery.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:25 | 1759491 Zero Govt

we're 'bloggers' not 'readership' son... we were readers but worked out newspapers, like the media, are propagandists not news channels and we weren't sheep ...hence pent-up demand for a real news source like ZH

that's how we got here, what are you doing here man of mystery solver? ...did the lights go out at your NY Times yesterday?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 17:59 | 1759219 Earl of Chiswick

WEIGHTED MONTE CARLO: A NEW TECHNIQUE FOR
CALIBRATING ASSET-PRICING MODELS

http://math.nyu.edu/faculty/avellane/weightedmontecarlo.pdf

witih thanks to David Faucon et. al.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:06 | 1759231 spiral_eyes

new algo.

financial "innovation"

is this new arms race going to be the thing that pushes all those QE dollars out into the markets?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:02 | 1759225 DormRoom

Ah Christ. another HFT outfit circulating money, flpping bits, and not producing anything benificial to society. wtf's wrong with America.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:51 | 1759557 Kayman

That's what's wrong with America. Reward the Cockroaches, penalize the workerbees.

Oh, and elect a dilettante for President.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:58 | 1759575 philipat

Crony capitalism?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:10 | 1759235 NotApplicable

Looks like Latour and Goldman spent the last year flipping shares to each other.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:13 | 1759477 Zero Govt

"last year" ? ...ex Goldman Sucks chief, Wank Paulson, has been fabricating fake paper trades in oil to stiff the oil market it's in high demand to pump up the prices for years ...share flipping ain't new, it's as old as stock market corruption itself... just ask ex US Treasury chief, Wank Paulson, who's an expert at catching Wall Street crooks like himself

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:13 | 1759240 obejoyful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWYk357SM_A&feature=related

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:19 | 1759253 GolfHatesMe

I think they just added Kweku Adoboli to head up trading.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:58 | 1759281 papaswamp

.....

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:39 | 1759289 Dapper Dan

My google searches reveal there is no precedent for this years 2% and 3% stock rallies in the last 30 minutes of trading.

In addition, I found very little commentary regarding this phenomenon save some Zerohedge articles and one Vinnystock tips post.

The rallies never extend beyond the after hour futures market, today for example immediately after the close the futures fell off.

http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=YM&p=m5

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:19 | 1759485 Nobody For President

And a nice reverse rally in TZA - low volume most of day, green ramp started up on up volume exactly at 1500 from $42.50, hit 44.50 at 15:20 then a monster volume spike (biggest of the day) started it down, couple more red spikes over 600K before the close at 41.42 with and after-hour drift down to 41.24.

~4% up, ~5% down in a hour - a boy could get whiplash watching this shit.

This pattern is getting old...

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:40 | 1759290 Aeonios

lol. So basically goldman got jobs for all their shitty french-banker friends through a shell company that will allow them to circumvent the volcker rule if it ever actually gets implemented?

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 18:52 | 1759324 ExpendableOne

Um....

Latour == Rout al

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:07 | 1759455 Zero Govt

"...just who is this Latour Trading which dares to upstage the firm that does god's work on earth.."

Latour Trading is 1st, Goldman Sucks is 2nd. God still has space in his heart to love also-rans, even total losers like corporate bankrupts Blankfein and Dimon, doing his work (ie. fraud, cooking corporate and Govt books, corrupting their auditors and democracy, pay-rolling politicians, fleecing clients and pension funds, getting leveraged to Mars and Uranus, going bankrupt etc)... God has rolled out alot of schemes at Goldmans recently through you Lloyd ?!!!

Point of Order TD : God is spelt with a capital 'G'. Now goldman are also-rans you can demote their Cap' to a lower case and Lloyd Blankfein to a basket case

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:55 | 1759568 Kayman

Zero Govt

" God is spelt with a capital 'G' " Only if you believe there is a big guy in the sky.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:12 | 1759472 truthparency

Interesting. Looks like Mark Gorton is running a rather substantial European operation, too, under the name 'Spire Europe,' as part of the Tower Research family.

Dow Jones ran an article on this little HFT operation just last week!

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2011-10-06/who-is-spire-europe

Look up the IP addresses for www.tower-research.com, www.latourtrading.com, www.limegroup.com, and www.spireeurope.com ... they're all the same.

Looks like Gorton's got his hands in more than a few high frequency pies.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:22 | 1759497 ADirtyChapCalle...

Ayy, that reaffirms what I said about the phone numbers. Latour, Tower, and Lime all had the same (at least up until October 1st - the last time according to the internet that Lime had that number listed).

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:47 | 1759548 Atomizer

Lloyd Blankfein on private equity and taxation

Jul 19 2007 Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, reviews the news on FT.com. In this segment, he discusses private equity and taxation.

Q:Bear Stearns

A: Long

Q: Obama

A: Long

LOL

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:50 | 1759555 randfan

I got art on the Fab Faucon...not sure how dated this is, but it lists his association with Latour

https://www.polytechnique.org/fiche.php?user=david.faucon.1996

from the stuff i've found on him, he's definitely got some very real quantitative bona fides behind him.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 21:25 | 1759619 Earl of Chiswick

holy fck

you are a master

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 00:12 | 1760051 Bolweevil

Bravo!

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 04:18 | 1760311 MikeNYC

The face of a thieving weasel.

Makes me fucking sick.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 21:41 | 1759658 dark pools of soros

any chance the algos will start commenting here soon??

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 21:56 | 1759680 colfaxcap

Latour is probably just a shell company of Merrill, Morgan, CSFB, Goldman, and JP Morgan....
d/b/a. Latour LLC just so media and ZH can think someone else is the bad guy...at least until Zh exposes these maggots

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:14 | 1759685 Earl of Chiswick

I am in awe of what ZHers have been able to source. This document is well worth the read.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/022511agrawalgov.pdf

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:20 | 1759720 Jena

Agreed. Seriously, you all are amazing.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:13 | 1759704 mark mchugh

I see by the comments here that some of you are quite good at internet research. So it might interest you to know that in sometime in the last two weeks all yahoo pages have been excluded from the wayback machine (archive.org).

No one but me seems to have noticed this yet.

http://acrossthestreetnet.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/another-sad-day-for-truth-justice-and-the-american-way/

The way things are going, none of you who were able to dig things up on Latour/Tower/Gorton will be able to find that kind of info in a few more years.

I'm asking you to understand the significance....

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:18 | 1759715 Earl of Chiswick

hadn't noticed

http://web.archive.org/web/19980212083710/http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/98...

but you are correct it will all be shut down in due course

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:56 | 1759814 mark mchugh

OK, I swear on my mother's grave, it was GONE from at least 10/6 until this morning (10/10).

I did capture a screen shot of the exclusion, and I will attest that it was all yahoo pages.

I'm just really glad they're back, so I've never been happier to look like a psycho.

So someone check me on this, CNN.com stopped getting crawled April 30, 2008

http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://cnn.com

I just think it's so important to be able to revisit the shit stuffed into America's collective head.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:38 | 1759755 mark mchugh

Tower Research Capital has some dead Trademarks:

http://www.trademarkia.com/company-tower-research-capital-1250515-page-1-2

Tower Research owns at least 26 domain names, including:

hackwallstreet.com
latourtrading.com
limefund.com
limefunds.com
limegroup.biz
limegroup.com
limegroup.net
limegroup.org
limestone-trading.biz
limestone-trading.net
limestone-trading.org
limestone-trading.us
limestonetrading.biz
limestonetrading.com
limestonetrading.net
limestonetrading.org
overclockwallstreet.com
ebootwallstreet.com
spireeurope.com
tower-research.com
towerresearch.com
trc-ir.com

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:54 | 1759801 truthparency

A little more on Spire, since that seems to be the other major active front for Tower Research, aside from Latour. Spire's in the Montreal Bourse, LSE, Euronext, OMX, SIX, Scoach, etc.:

http://www.m-x.ca/f_circulaires_en/124-11_en.pdf

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/traders-and-brokers/membership/member-firm-information-sheets/member-firm-information-sheets-details.html?issueNumber=2008/169

http://www.euronext.com/forourclient/mbs/market/list-1662-EN.html?docid=796427

http://www.six-swiss-exchange.com/news/overview_en.html?id=spire_europe_limited

http://www.euroinvestor.co.uk/news/story.aspx?id=11396998

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2011-10-03/the-top-ten-europe-high-frequency-kingmakers-in-scandinavia-at-least?mod=sectionheadlines-home-TT

Clears through Fortis Bank Global.

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 22:59 | 1759823 overthehill

Amazing info, Boggles the mind! Why is this lunacy tolerated? It not only adds nothing to the benefit of society, but it actually steals from society and distorts the trading process. If this is allowed to continue the markets will become privately dominated sand boxes . . .

Mon, 10/10/2011 - 23:32 | 1759940 Freddie

They did this during the dot bomb bubble on IPO day for the dot bombs. The plan was to get the main street sheep to buy shit like furniture.com and other dopey companies. On IPO they would trade stock amongst each other.

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 01:23 | 1760176 Bartanist

Back when Goldman was supposedly forced to get out of proprietary trading I questioned what would stop them from using a separate front company and collecting hefty royalties from the separate front company through some sort of exclusive licensing agreement of their equipment, processes and expertise. Goldman would technically not be doing the trading, but would collect the profits through the license fees.

Latour could be "Our Alt"

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 06:28 | 1760356 Zephirus