Wedbush Securities Inc. is a privately
held financial services and investment
firm that provides private and
institutional brokerage, investment
banking, equity research, fixed income,
public finance, correspondent clearing,
and asset management to individual,
institutional and issuing clients.
Wedbush Securities was founded in 1955
and is headquartered at 1000 Wilshire
Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. The
firm has over 100 offices, over 125
correspondent offices and close to 1,000
employees nationwide.
History 
The firm was founded in 1955 by two high
school friends, Edward W. Wedbush and
Robert Werner, in Los Angeles,
California. They each contributed $5,000
to capitalize their new company, Wedbush
& Company. The company was named after
Wedbush because neither partner wanted a
possible business failure named after
them and Wedbush lost a coin toss.
Wedbush opened its first office in 1957
located in the Crenshaw district of Los
Angeles. Three years later, Robert
Werner decided to sell his interest in
the firm to Ed Wedbush. In 1971, the
firm became members of the New York
Stock Exchange, the Depository Trust &
Clearing Corporation, and the National
Securities Clearing Corporation. In
1972, the firm began offering
correspondent clearing services,
providing trade execution for other
brokerage firms. The firm also added an
Investment Banking group in 1975.
Wedbush expanded their trading and
research capabilities and added several
retail brokerage offices. In 2000, the
firm launched BrokerInsight, a
workstation for order entry, portfolio
valuation, and account management and in
2006, the firm became the #1 Liquidity
Provider on NASDAQ. In late 2009, the
firm changed its name to Wedbush
Securities Inc. from Wedbush Morgan
Securities Inc.
On June 13, 2011, Wedbush Securities'
parent company, Wedbush Inc. announced
the acquisition of Lime brokerage, a
provider of low-latency, high-throughput
trading technologies and high-volume
agency brokerage.
Barron's released the research results
conducted by Zacks Investment Research
for top stock picking firms. Zack's
scored Wedbush as the number one stock
picking firm for three of their four
survey periods. Barron's announced that,
"Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities
surfed to top honors by wide margins
over the six, 12 and 36 months ended
Dec. 31, 2011." 
Corporate divisions 
The firm is organized into three main
divisions: Capital Markets, Clearing and
Technology, and Private Client Services.
= Capital Markets Group =
Wedbush Securities’ Research platform
consists of over 25 analysts, coverage
of more than 300 stocks, a consumer
channel checking team and Wedbush
Decision Metrics. The Equity Research
team provides insights into emerging
investment opportunities within sectors
such as consumer products and services,
new media and entertainment, clean
technology and industrial growth, and
life sciences. The Wedbush Securities
Equity Sales and Trading Group delivers
information flow and investment ideas as
well as best execution services to
small, mid and large cap clients. The
group covers more than 1,100 U.S. and
European institutions through their Los
Angeles, New York, Boston, San
Francisco, Seattle, Dallas and
Minneapolis offices and are market
makers in over 700 NASDAQ stocks.
The Investment Banking Group provides
clients with financing and advisory
services while the Fixed Income Group
provides investment solutions and
financing assistance to private client,
institutional, municipal and corporate
clients.
= Clearing and Technology Group =
The Clearing and Technology Group
provides clearing and prime brokerage
services for retail broker dealers,
institutional firms, black box trading
firms, professional trading firms, hedge
funds, investment banks, and municipal
bond underwriters for a range of
services such as prime brokerage and
high-frequency trading.
= Private Client Services Group =
The Private Client Services Group
provides brokerage, advisory products,
and services to private and
institutional clients, including wealth
management, retirement planning,
investment management and financial
planing.
Legal disputes 
In 2011 it was ordered to pay a former
bond trader $3.5 million in withheld
compensation for "morally reprehensible"
conduct, and was ordered to pay an
investor about $2.9 million after an
arbitration panel decided that a
customer's account had been "churned"
and looted by a former Wedbush broker.
On October 20, 2011 it was revealed that
Wedbush securities is taking legal
action against liquidnet inc for alleged
violation of trade secrets.
Recent awards 
Barron's ranks Wedbush Securities as the
number 1 stock picking firm in 2011 
Wall Street Journal’s Best on the Street
2011 ranked Wedbush analysts #3 in
Alternative Energy, Household & Personal
Products and #5 in Aerospace & Defense.
In 2010, The Financial Times and
Starmine ranked Wedbush analysts #1 top
earnings estimators in Biotechnology and
Diversified Consumer Services and #3 in
Communication Equipment.
Forbes ranked Wedbush analysts #1 in
Computer Software & Services, #3 in
Semiconductors, Apparel and Soap &
Cosmetics in 2010.
Wedbush was named Barron’s best Wall
Street Performer for First Half of 2010
and all of 2010.
Wedbush was picked as the Top Stock
Picking Firm for the first half of 2009.
References 
External links 
Wedbush Securities official website
