Quote from FSU:
I think the biggest advantage of working with a prop firm is you will need less capital than an individual PM account. The absolute minimum for a PM is around $125,000, going up much higher with firms such as Merrill or Goldman. The biggest disadvantage would be the safety of your money. With a individual PM account, you have to worry about only your trades and your firms solvency, as opposed to what other traders or the owners of the prop firm do.
Of course there are many other factors to consider as licensing requirements, costs, etc.
I think it really comes down to what products you trade, how much capital you have, what type of positions you intend to hold, and the type of help you need.
If you trade VIX options for example, which trade only on the CBOE, if you are a customer you will get priority over all other traders when your order is resting in the book.
There are different prices for price feeds depending on whether you are a customer or firm trader.
