Securities Lawyers Blog
Our law firm represents individual and institutional investors that have been mistreated by their brokers and brokerage firms, such as Speedtrader, Inc. Many investors do not recognize broker misconduct in their accounts, and those that do are often hesitant to seek help. Broker misconduct spans many issues that violate industry rules, including unauthorized trading, breach of fiduciary duty, unsuitable asset allocation, and churning. The attorneys at Gana Weinstein LLP can analyze your accounts and investments to determine if there was misconduct in the handling of your account.
SpeedTrader is a direct access online broker that serves active stock and options traders and day traders with desktop, web, and mobile trading platforms offering Level 2 data, hotkeys, scanners, and routing to multiple ECNs. Incorporated in New York in 1999, the firm is a SIPC member and operates as part of Mint Global Markets.
Speedtrader, Inc – By the Numbers:
- CRD #: 107403
- Regulatory Events: 21
- Arbitration Events: 1
- Broker Employees: 9
Speedtrader, Inc – In the News:
FINRA v. Speedtrader, Inc (Case #2017056224501) – From at least November 2017 to the present, SpeedTrader failed to comply with its best execution obligations. Before June 2023, the firm’s reviews of execution quality were limited to assessing whether customers’ trades were executed at prices inferior to the National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO). After June 2023, SpeedTrader did not consider all relevant execution quality factors, such as the likelihood of execution of limit orders, transaction costs, customer needs and expectations, and the existence of payment for order flow arrangements. Additionally, from at least November 2017 to the present, SpeedTrader’s reviews failed to compare the execution quality of the firm’s existing order routing arrangements to the execution quality of other markets. As a result, SpeedTrader violated FINRA Rule 5310(a)(1), FINRA Rule 5310 Supplementary Material .09 (Rule 5310.09), and FINRA Rule 2010. Further, from January 2017 to July 2022, SpeedTrader routed customer orders totaling approximately 100 million shares annually to three other broker-dealers that engaged in net trading activity, and thereby interjected these three broker-dealers between itself and the best market for the subject securities in violation of FINRA Rules 5310(a)(2) and 2010. Furthermore, by failing to reasonably review this net trading activity to ensure that it did not interfere with the firm’s best execution obligations, SpeedTrader separately violated FINRA Rules 5310(a)(1), 5310.09, and 2010. From at least November 2017 to the present, SpeedTrader also violated FINRA Rules 3110 and 2010 by failing to establish, maintain, and enforce a supervisory system, including written supervisory procedures (WSPs), reasonably designed to achieve compliance with its best execution obligations. From January 2017 through February 2022, SpeedTrader violated Rule 606 of Regulation NMS under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and FINRA Rule 2010 by failing to disclose material aspects of its relationship with markets to which it routed orders in its quarterly reports made available pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 606. From at least November 2017 to at least March 2022, SpeedTrader failed to establish and implement a written anti-money laundering (AML) program that was reasonably designed to achieve and monitor the firm’s compliance with the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and its implementing regulations. Specifically, SpeedTrader failed to establish and implement policies and procedures that could be reasonably expected to detect and cause the reporting of suspicious activity, in violation of FINRA Rules 3310(a), 3310(f), and 2010. Additionally, from June 30, 2020 to August 22, 2023, SpeedTrader falsely responded “No” to the question on the firm’s customer relationship summary (Form CRS) concerning legal or disciplinary history. The firm was required to respond “Yes,” because it had prior legal or disciplinary history.
FINRA v. Speedtrader, Inc (Case #2018060986401) – From November 2017 through January 2020, SpeedTrader failed to establish, maintain, and enforce a supervisory system, including written supervisory procedures, reasonably designed to achieve compliance with applicable federal securities laws and FINRA rules prohibiting potentially manipulative trading in violation of FINRA Rules 3110 and 2010. Also, from November 2017 through January 2020, SpeedTrader’s market access controls and procedures were also unreasonable. SpeedTrader failed to maintain direct and exclusive control over its credit controls and failed to ensure the credit controls were reasonably designed. SpeedTrader also failed to comply with certain annual certification requirements. Therefore, SpeedTrader violated Section 15(c)(3) of Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Exchange Act Rule 15c3-5, and FINRA Rule 2010.
FINRA v. Speedtrader, Inc (Case #2014039942801) – The firm transmitted reports to the Order Audit Trail System (“OATS”) concerning 39 orders that contained inaccurate, incomplete, or improperly formatted data. Specifically, the firm: (a) misapplied on 30 occasions a Special Handling Code of DIR when the order instead was a nondirected order, (b) misreported a Time in Force (“TIF”) Code on 23 occasions, by using a DAY TIF Code instead of a GTX TIF Code in 22 instances and using a GTX TIF Code instead of a GTC TIF Code in one instance, and (c) incorrectly appended a “C” cancel flag on an Order/Route Report for five orders that had been partially cancelled instead of submitting a separate CL report to OATS. The conduct described in this paragraph constitutes separate and distinct violations of FINRA Rule 7450. For the first calendar quarter of 2014, the firm made publicly available a report on its routing of non-directed orders in covered securities during that quarter. This report included incorrect and incomplete information.
Our attorneys have successfully represented hundreds of investors in investment disputes with their brokers and brokerage firms. Our consultations are free and we welcome all inquiries.