CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (USD $) In Thousands, except Per Share data, unless otherwise specified	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2009
Revenues
Principal transactions	$ 89,108	$ 79,433	$ 108,276
Commissions	71,347	76,817	122,878
Investment banking	33,069	43,400	36,577
Investment banking revenues from related party		1,947	9,579
Investment gains, net	2,996	7	5,698
Interest income	66,194	57,292	46,362
Gain from bargain purchase-ClearPoint Funding, Inc. acquisition (Refer to Note 11)	2,330
Fees and other	8,041	1,004	1,769
Total revenues	273,085	259,900	331,139
Interest expense	11,913	11,318	12,523
Net revenues	261,172	248,582	318,616
Expenses (excluding interest)
Compensation and benefits	162,537	222,833	220,213
Impairment of goodwill and intangible assets (Refer to Note 12)	80,244
Clearing, settlement and brokerage	35,203	4,314	3,314
Communications and data processing	13,471	11,464	8,169
Occupancy, depreciation and amortization	8,455	11,941	7,764
Business development	4,620	4,825	4,423
Loss from extinguishment of mandatorily redeemable preferred stock (Refer to Note 17)		1,608
Other	18,519	17,380	13,377
Total expenses (excluding interest)	323,049	274,365	257,260
(Loss)/income before income taxes and discontinued operations	(61,877)	(25,783)	61,356
Income tax expense/(benefit)	2,207	(9,778)	6,757
(Loss)/income from continuing operations	(64,084)	(16,005)	54,599
(Loss)/income from discontinued operations, net of taxes (Refer to Note 26)	(18,040)	(4,616)	321
Net (loss)/income	$ (82,124)	$ (20,621)	$ 54,920
Basic (loss)/earnings per share:
Continuing operations (in dollars per share)	$ (0.52)	$ (0.13)	$ 0.56
Discontinued operations (in dollars per share)	$ (0.15)	$ (0.04)	$ 0.00
(Loss)/income per share (in dollars per share)	$ (0.67)	$ (0.17)	$ 0.57
Diluted (loss)/earnings per share:
Continuing operations (in dollars per share)	$ (0.52)	$ (0.13)	$ 0.52
Discontinued operations (in dollars per share)	$ (0.15)	$ (0.04)
(Loss)/income per share (in dollars per share)	$ (0.67)	$ (0.17)	$ 0.53
Weighted average shares of common stock:
Basic (in shares)	123,439	121,301	96,834
Diluted (in shares)	123,439	121,301	104,233