[Let me preface this by saying that I am NOT referring to equity stock proprietary trading firms - completely different business model as compared to futures and OTC/cash proprietary trading firms.] Unless you already have some kind of really good trade going... get hired as a programmer with expertise in machine learning and time series modeling. Some guy on Shell Houston's Natural Gas Desk whose wife gets transferred to NYC; some guy on Cargill's Desk in Minnetonka who got divorced and wants to move back to Chicago - those are the types of traders that DRW looks for. Jump, Gelber, RCG, Allston, Belvedere and the others are looking for quants in terms of ground floor entry level positions. But they will take a look if you are doing well as an independent under the "right" circumstances.
Alexpun, those are all personal preferences. If he would like to work as a professional trader, than he should send an attractive CV to as much trading firms as possible in order to increase probability to get a job. In case that he don’t like work in the office, he can always switch to own account
If you have 20 years and experience, hopefully you have some positive statements and I think looking around into getting positions in home offices as they first stop. That being said, I can't imagine someone running a home office will be interested in your trading strategy when their job is mostly to not lose the family's money. haha. You are much better off trading prop at T-3 or Maverick Trading (and putting up the upfront capital as required by them) or trading on your own. Once you get 100K, you can access portfolio management which should boost your buying power. Good luck