thanks for your feedback. i also called them up and although had some 2nd thoughts, went ahead and went in for an interview a few days ago. btw, i'm a novice trader with no finance/math degree and looking to make the move from part-time to fulltime. so i am currently looking for a place that will provide good training. and i dont' get what you mean by they were asking if you "would allow him to look me up in the 'book'."?
so here is how the interview went:
their office was in a big office complex. went in late morning. their office was mainly an open space with about 8-10 trading stations. each had 4 monitors. there were about 3 people actively trading. although i was told on the phone that they had ~15 traders and no one traded remote. 2 others were talking on a side "lounge" area. one of whom was the guy i spoke to. he apparently was the main partner. looked pretty young, about early 30s.
the nitty gritty:
is a branch office
$4-6/1k shares
$5k minimum cap contribution (firm puts in 145k for total of 150k bp)
no lock up period
~$300/month software fee (sterling pro + data)
99.9 payout
so basically the firm is making $ solely from commissions
intraday positions only
US equities only
no formal training, but mentoring from senior trader available
along with the above i asked a lot of other questions, which might have been out of the scope of a normal prop firm interview such as "if they are a branch office, who are they a branch of?", how much they have in their firm account, how are they making money, etc. but as i mentioned, i'm still a noob so these could be irrelevant questions.
in any case, the interviewer seemed to get a bit squirmy when i was asking these questions. even jokingly asking if im from finra. i also got to talk to a few others in the firm. one guy who was apparently a CRM and an author. i was introduced to their best trader who was a 22 year old who started trading soon after high school. the interviewer touted how this trader was driving a porche and he himself had 3k in cash in his wallet.
all in all, i didn't get a real good feeling when i left. but since im a noob, i do know i have almost no chance of getting into a proper firm. so thinking if this is a worthwhile gamble. i risk 5k and see if i can learn something from the traders there, and if nothing special, then i can leave...?? i know there are many many shady firms who tout "excellent" training and some charging a lot of money so im currently at a dilema