The salient point here is that unless you’re willing to: 1. Have an edge that you can clearly articulate to firm principal(s) during an interview, AND 2. Live in Chicago/NYC/London area and physically occupy the firm’s office space during trading hours; as far as futures go, you’ll need to trade your own $$$. In the equities space, avoid firms that charge you for learning AND that want you to fund a trading account with them. These firms even label themselves as “prop” firms but it’s a fraud. Clients think that they’re entering into a proprietary trading arrangement and funding a trading account but it’s a bait-and-switch to extract tens of thousands of dollars in “educational” fees. “We’ll teach you how to trade, and then we’ll co-fund a prop account” is how the pitch goes... There was a great deal of regulatory compliance issues with these firms several years ago that has been documented ad nauseam here on ET. Most notably, firms withdrawing exorbitant instruction fees from what clients were misled to believe were legit trading accounts (which was a scam and a fraud as the firms failed to segregate “trading account” funds). There was SEC action against some of these educational bucket shops but you never kill all of the vermin. So, the “prop account” you co-funded gets drained for dubious education fees of very little value. Standard boiler plate education materials you can get free online and even SIM account “live” trading rooms. I’ve seen SEC complaints where people got ripped off for many tens of thousands of dollars for “education” you could have gotten off of You Tube.
Couple of points, 1. When you get hired at Bank Desk, you’re going to end up making OTC markets for commercial bank clients under the Orwellian oversight of a Desk Manager. You will have next to zero autonomy. This idea of a freshly minted Booth Business School MBA being given free reign to throw around blocks of 5K lots in ES or ZN is pure fiction. And they don’t give a shit about your top five MBA any more. 2. Prop firms like DRW, Jump, Geneva, etc. are out there (in very small numbers) and they do well - and you’ll have more autonomy than you would have at an IB. If you have a STEM degree and you can code and you have some working knowledge of financial markets you’ve got a decent chance to get hired on as an analyst. Self motivated analysts with good ideas become traders over time. Having a good working knowledge of spread trading strategies like inter market arbitrage and intra market making will be a distinct advantage.
When one says 'hire' does that mean salary? I was under the impression prop firms didn't pay salaries. Does becoming a class B member and being paid via schedule K1 distributions count as being 'hired' ?