Schwab is at its Wit’s end

First Wit dumped its attempt to build a retail platform. Next, it dumped its name, and moved out of its Silicon Alley headquarters in New York to Connecticut. Then last year Charles Schwab Capital Markets bought it. At least Wit, by then Soundview, the name of the boutique it bought in 1999, was joining a like-minded firm with ambitions to change how markets work.

But Schwab has not had any more luck. Former CEO David Pottruck, ousted last year after three years of underperformance, had been determined to make Schwab bigger in institutional equities.