Tradebot


Kansas City Business Journal - January 14, 2005 by Charlie Anderson Staff Writer



A flat-screen computer announces: "Crank the volume!"
The traders on the floor sit silently, clicking their mouses. If you were expecting "Boiler Room" or "Wall Street," you'd be wrong. Jeans and T-shirts are favored over Gordan Gekko-esque cufflinks.

But Gekko would be proud: Tradebot Systems Inc. trades an estimated 3 percent to 5 percent of all shares exchanged on the Nasdaq market each day, founder and CEO Dave Cummings said.
Tradebot trades 50 million to 100 million shares a day. Anywhere from 1 billion to 2 billion shares trade daily on Nasdaq.
That means billions of dollars worth of equities pass through Tradebot's software-driven trading system each day. At any given time, you might walk in and see that the firm has traded 20 percent of Yahoo! Inc.'s daily volume.
The stock doesn't stay for long: Tradebot starts each day holding no shares and ends each day holding no shares. It makes profits in the fractions of pennies on each share by quickly buying and selling. When all the gains are added up, you might have a $50,000 day, Cummings said.
"It's day-trading on steroids," he said.
Tradebot began as a software project in 1999. Today, it might be Kansas City's most fascinating company.
Trader Andy Vos joined Tradebot two years ago, but he still hasn't shaken that amazed look people get when they first walk through the doors.
He's seated amid 24 computer screens, each of which flashes hundreds of numbers. Vos points out the one that matters: a line chart that shows he's made more than $5,000 after rapidly buying and selling millions of shares of stock.