A day trader's stormy partnerships

Day trader Adam Mesh got his 15 minutes of fame recently on NBC reality show Average Joe, where he was one of 16, well, ordinary-looking males vying for a beautiful woman. The earnest Mesh lost out in the final round: His love interest, a former NFL cheerleader, opted for a ringer -- a handsome guy the producers tossed into the mix at the last minute. Mesh, co-founder of a day trading shop known, appropriately enough, as Chimera Capital, might have known that people tend to go with the most attractive offer when deciding on partners.

Two years ago Chimera traders had a contract with Momentum Securities, a registered broker-dealer that provided Mesh and his fellow traders with facilities and clearing. In June 2002, however, Chimera told Momentum it had found a new broker-dealer partner, Andover Brokerage, according to documents filed in a New York civil court. Chimera, the records say, then gave Momentum three days to offer better terms on its commission rates. The two firms had a nasty breakup: Chimera sued Momentum, alleging that it owed Mesh's firm money and had wrongfully evicted the traders from their work space. Momentum, now owned by E*Trade, disputed the claims, and a judge later ruled in its favor. Chimera did join up with Andover, which itself linked up with SunGard and is today known as Assent. Reached at Assent's offices in New York last month, Mesh would only say that he was "banned by NBC" from doing any more interviews. "I could get sued," he says.