[ by Melanie Gretchen ] The first agency brokerage firm to close in 2012 will be be New York's Ticonderoga Securities LLC.  The Madison Avenue firm, with about 75 employees, will halt operations by the weekend after an attempt to boost capital fell through. The company, formerly Reynders, Gray & Co., was founded in 1979 and renamed Ticonderoga in 2009.  The firm took on some dozen former Pali Capital employees in traders and research pros - in line with co-founder and CEO Shawn McLoughlin's goal of a boutique firm with top-notch analysts and execution.  The following May, the firm merged with Soleil Securities to fatten its research component, but never achieved its hoped-for results.  It was difficult, according to one source, for the firm to continue to make the grade on the research vote as buyside firm continued cutting lists, while overall trading slowed down. So what happened, ... and how can small, independent firms weather the storm if large agency brokers are caught in the wreckage of the current economy - specifically, the impact on smaller firms of broker net capital requirements and counterparty risk? Neither CEO Shawn McLaughlin, nor co-founder and chairman Joel Plasco, said to be in London on business, was available. For more information, visit [TradersMag, 1/24/12] and [Bloomberg, 1/24/12].