Interest is in either Futures or Options. I'll be trading company money at a private equity firm, in a few weeks. Their money, none of mine, and its all stocks. The split...not so hot. 50/50. I'm sure the training will be something to laugh about as well. But at least they are honest with me; they've suggested that opening a customer account is eventually the way to go. Naturally, thats what I'm thinking of. After this experience, (assuming its 6 months long) i'll have 6 months of living expenses left assuming I don't make a dime trading (it can't go lower...not my money) and without working a partime job. I'll also have about 10k to open a customer account there or elsewhere. The thing is, they only deal with stocks. I'm interested in going to a futures prop and becoming an "arcade" trader/opening up a customer account. But i'm not too sure how much this costs. For places like Echo, Bright, Assent, I've seen the cost be about 5k-10k. What about a place like GHCO, Refco, DRW? I know SMW requires something like 20-30k. What do places like this require to open a customer account? Anybody with any discussion on this matter (pos or negative) is welcome to respond. Why is this a good idea? Why is this a bad idea? Is this something people do; why or why not? Thanks a bunch. (info about me: Fresh college graduate. Want to get some experience prop trading...I know it doesn't look so hot on the resume, but I'm not worried about that. I can omit it if need be without having a gap in work history due to some unique circumstances. As for me, I'm lucky to have 10k laying around. I didn't when I started my search to trade prop. The capital contribution really puts a limit on what a kid can do; its hard to get a firm to take you on no money down. The way I see it, the training is supposedly shody either way you go unless you go somewhere nice. But say you interview with GHCO's prop division but don't get in. You might be able to just open a customer account if they let you. And sure it won't be the same, but at least you can fudge the resume a bit and say you were a "trader" at GHCO. I don't know how grad schools or people outside the field would really know the difference and its a good experience, even if you slowly bleed to death. I guess the training won't really exist as a customer, but thats supposedly shite anyways. And the buying power/psychology of trading your own money won't be the same....lots of things will be different...but you'll still be doing this thing as opposed to being shut out.