theshadow

The Long Case for ThinkorSwim Group

Barba has been a master at setting up a board of directors that has all of the strings attached to him so that they dance to his tune. He is someone who likes total control or you're gone. His Blackberry is embedded in his hand and you can be sure that he reads "everything" and is totally aware of what is going on both on the boards and in the organization.

He did such a good job with setting up the board that he was able to come into Investools from the outside and oust the two men responsible for starting the company. They were sheep going to the slaughter.

Sosnoff and Sheridan have to be careful and aware that they could very well be the next sheep in the pen. Once you don't see it the "Barba Way", the wheels can be set in motion to make you ineffective and/or gone. All to be blamed on the "board".

If I read the annual report correctly, and you can and should read it on your own if you haven't, Barba has more than adequately taken care of himself throughout the years. It appears that it would cost around $10 million to remove Barba. He gets a nice chunk whether he stays or goes. If he hasn't found some way to add to that amount recently, it might be a bargain price to prevent him from screwing up the company any further.

Andrew Scott was one of the instructors who threw in with Barba and became his lackey (vice president). If the annual report is correct, salary and bonuses put about $2 million into his pocket by sucking off of all of the other instructors who are doing the workshops and upselling the Masters and PHD products. (Just an educated guess). With his move back to instructor, he'll just have to work a bit harder to make the $2 Million this year. That VP position is about as needed as Flannel Pajamas at Victoria's Secret!

Going forward, TOS needs to incorporate many of the fine Investools trading tools into their own educational offerings. Then, whether one wants to trade options or stocks, some great material and excellent TOS instructors are available to provide the service to all brokerage customers at a nominal cost.

TOS is at quite a few of the trade shows, and for those I've attended, they always have 3 and 4 deep lines at their booth. The TOS trading package is tops and some well thought out training modules would ensure a competent trader/investor. Paid and/or gratis workshops (depending on amount of content) could be put on during the trade shows or in selected cities. Advertising these venues strictly through the TOS site would help eliminate the shyster type hype that goes with trying to sell workshops for workshops sake.

Anyone interested in a good model to work from, check out the Pristine organization at pristine.com.

At the earliest, TOS management needs to become the dog wagging the tail by gaining control of the organization. The useful portions of Investools should be integrated into TOS and therest, along with the fat (Barba, Kane and company) trimmed away and replaced with execs who know how to run a well oiled and positioned brokerage machine.

It's time for TOS to be on the lips of discerning traders/investors who are interested in a total and ahead of it's time trading platform that has all of the modules necessary to trade options, stocks, futures, forex and on and on, AND the training necessary to HELP the trader get to any level of competence. Will everyone be totally successful? Of course not!

For those that have taken golf or tennis lessons, some became pros, some average, some better than average and some just fell by the wayside. That's golf and tennis! That's trading/investing!