If he's joining a prop firm with a capital contribution, then it's probably just one of the handful of firms left that will accept the new Series 57 license. The focus reports of the prop firms that take capital contributions are not hard to find online, and they are current for the past fiscal year and usually filed around April. You're right about a prop firm not offering as much detail as the JPM report you cited. However, all he requires is the member's equity and the amount of capital the firm has above the requirements of SEC Rule 15c3-1.
"It's a prop where I put up risk capital." Then all you'll need is around $5,000, the Series 57 license, a clean FBI background check, and a pulse. "Commissions/fees are passed on to me the trader along with ECN fees/rebates." Keep in mind that ECN fees can add up to double the commissions quoted, especially if you are constantly removing liquidity from the market. For example, if you're being quoted .003/share and the ECN fee is .003/share, then your TRUE costs are .006 if you buy on the offer and sell on the bid, or $6 per 1,000 shares traded. Next, factor how many shares you will trade in any given day, then multiply that by the number of days you will trade in a month. Then you can estimate your monthly costs. Adding liquidity will of course reduce your monthly costs, so be sure to ask about what routes they prefer and the ECN fees for adding/removing liquidity. Then add your fixed costs for platform and data. Multiply those costs by 12, and then you'll have an idea of what you'll be spending for the first year during your lock up period. If you cannot make enough to justify the monthly costs, then you will bleed the capital contribution until you churn and burn. If it's your first run at it, then no big deal on losing the initial amount of capital. Just be realistic in your goals and remember that it's EQUITY, not buying power, that is required for long term success (in addition to tons of screen time and solid risk management, of course). Best of luck.
1. If you have any outside activity to generate income, then it must be disclosed to the firm. 2. The prop firm will NOT have customer accounts unless they also offer retail accounts, however that's under a different LLC, so this won't apply. I suggest looking up the SEC.gov focus report for 2015 regarding the prop firm you'll looking to join. It's quite simple. Just type in the name of the firm under "Company name" on the left side of the page, and follow the link to read the .pdf file labeled "focus report" of the firm. Then you'll see the firm's capital structure. https://www.sec.gov/search/search.htm
itradeRisk may want to ask around. Apart from Bright and Echo, the other firms gladly accepted $5k. Echo is gone, and I think Bright still has the $40k minimum. Not sure about the others now.