Quote from dinotrade:
I trade in Chimera's Boston office, it's definitely still open and doing well. Everyone passed the 56 or had a 7.
Regarding tech, there are 4 IT guys in the New York office with phones and on IM and the partners are always available if you can't reach a tech guy.
Overall, it seems like these 2 firms are different animals. Chimera does not take money down from traders with no experience. I got hired and got a salary, and didn't have to do any capital contribution or training fees. There are also a bunch of real deal experienced traders with big bp that they support as well.
Good info. Chimera seems quite solid. They reported over $10 million in member's equity as per their 2010 SEC filings, obviously not some rinky dink operation.
They are one of the rare "true prop" models in the equities business (most who hire traders for salary are in Chicago and trade futures).

. Overall, good guys, great customer service, room to grow = happy trader(for me at least).