Hi, I'm new to the prop trading field, but I have active Series 7/63 licenses. I found these three firms through Hotjobs and was already interviewed by the first two (in NYC). My e-mail and application to Keystone went unanswered and instead they sent me by e-mail an offer to attend their courses with no mentioned of my application. Not sure about it, but that e-mail and their whole website seem pretty sleazy to me. Regarding the first two, ETA offers a 4K two-week course + two-week simulation trading to new traders, after which they give you 1K to trade and see how you manage it. No desk or software costs. 90% payout. Remote trading allowed with experience. I have not asked about commissions, but the Director of their mentoring program, McAndrews if my memory serves me correctly, never mentioned it in our conversation. He showed me his account at the end of the day and there was a 1000-something profit on 10K volume for the day. I was there that day for a demo of the training program and there were a few guys there who had already enrolled in the course, so me and a few other people were basically getting a free lesson. Later, they gave us the opportunity to simulate trading at their computers, which they have two rows of for their potential and current students. I'm not sure how it's done and whether its real money or not, but we traded LIVE on their Blackwood Pro platform. Long story short, most people lost money, while I made 169 bucks on around 10K volume, and this is the first time I have ever used a trading platform or even looked at charts, and while it took me about an hour to figure out how to work it, I don't mean to brag, but I was pretty hooked on it by my 3rd hour sitting there trading. I basically had a small window there with several stocks and it showed the price movements on each one. Whenever I saw a stock was on a consistent uptick, I got in. I got one trade wrong tho and could have made 1 buck on each share if I hadn't shorted it instead, but it was only 100 shares so I was positive at the end of the day. Anyway, this isn't about my newfound trading proficiency, lol. The experience left me with a pretty positive impression. It's a big room with a lot of computers and traders, and the people there seemed positive. Next day I interviewed at Lynx by Mike. Their office at Lexington seemed pretty nice and pro. Mike told me that I will have to put up 5K security deposit. They train you for 2 weeks and then you're on. They give you 100K right away and their payout is 95%. I forgot to ask about desk/software/commission fees, because the first two I simply forgot to ask about and last I wasn't even aware of until I came to this forum. Anyway, on Monday I'll be calling Mike to find out. Keystone disqualified itself for me with its behavior, but I'm still on the fence on that one. Does anyone want to chime in with any advise or comments or their opinions about the firms? I would really appreciate it. Please, if you're going to post your opinion, ELABORATE on the details and why you like / dislike the firm. Thanks. P.S.: McAndrews of ETA mentioned several times about Velez Capital "they're currently the best in the field" while showing me and another guy other mentors and training programs in the field. Not sure whether his intent was innocent, but reading so many negative comments on Velez here left me with a bad taste. I also saw an ad for Velez inside the current issue of Trader Monthly.
Thanks for your advice Joe. I tried to reply to you, but it says you don't accept PMs. I wouldn't have that amount of money (10K+) to put up for Velez anyway.