Austin Rocks. Dare i say the best city in america. I lived in fort worth for years...lots of friends in austin. lakes, food, hill country, nice people, not too expensive, decent economy, good night life...you name it. I live in costa rica right now, and the only place i would move back to would be Austin. I dont know anyone who DOESNT like austin come to think of it.
You apparently have not ever been stuck in traffic on I35 on a Friday afternoon. I agree though. I lived in round rock for 4 months and Austin is pretty nice if you can deal with the traffic.
My opinion is that if you happen to get into some kind of prop firm you will not learn much about trading. A lot of those firms are not even hiring right now as they are not doing that hot. Most of the prop firms were geared toward trading spreads, hitting econ numbers (which does not work most of the time, but that is where they made most of their money), or involves scalping for ticks. A lot of firms are not doing well in any of these areas because all those trade strategies can be and have been automated so very very few can compete against this technology as they no longer have execution speed as an advantage. Your best bet would be to find a firm that uses techology for their traders (if you know how to program) or uses a longer term approach if you can find it. However I don't think going to chicago for 4-6 months will accomplish much unless you find some unique situation or already know someone there that can help you. I am not saying to give up but just to give you a bit more realistic view of things there.
For what its worth, I'm in a trader training program in chicago, and I'm being strongly urged to keep my mind open to NYC or London. Supposedly there is a dearth of trading jobs in Chicago compared to those other two cities.