Here's a blog entry by Brett Steenbarger, an excellent trader/psychologist, on Prop FIrms. It may be helpful. Read through the comments section, too.
http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2009/01/jobs-with-proprietary-trading-firms.html
I just sat through a webinar - or sales pitch - with Regan. Many of you may have already seen a similar webinar, so I may not add to the discussion. Funny, but Mary Pippins said that she liked that they were not so polished. Well, the guy who came on after Regan, Rick Kreitzer (sp?) was ALL polished. He was supposedly simply a trader who came on and has been successful, and was taking over bec. Richard was tired from the long day of trading. My guess is this guy graduated from Dale Carnegie or some such, and is a former (and current) salesman. SO typical: what do you want out of life? Look how much you can make, and that's with just one contract one day a week. And then they compare it to a bank cd?! Good comparison (not). He then said, "But I like to take a living out of this, so look at 4 days a week and more contracts..." No mention of any losses of course, or how that increased leverage would also knock you out of the game real quick. This was also contrary to Regan's message in his presentation. SOOO slick.
It's funny, bec. Regan's presentation was decent, with many good points re: money management and trading, and yet that belies what this guy at the end of the webinar was pushing. And a page earlier in this thread, supposed client Xposter420 also said "it's been slow so he's "only" trading 20 contracts; when volatility picks up and things start moving he ups it 5x or 10x. You do the math." Same language as in the presentation: "Just up the contracts and see how much you can make!" Really?! And how much can you lose, too?! AND, why in the world would he put on more positions when volatility picks up?! So, you can gather what I think of Xfactor420's post.
I imagine Regan is a successful trader in his own right, and perhaps one can learn from him, though I wonder whether you could take it and do it on your own after awhile, as he has access to the sounds and sights of the pit. That makes it a LOT easier to catch a brief momentum push, which it appears he's doing. So if people sign on with the thought they'll learn and leave, it may not work out. And he gets in first, too, and it might not last long. That could be the difference between success and failure for momentum plays. You could subscribe to one of the pit-calling services, but still not the same as being there, and having his years of experience.
But one thing I've no doubt about is that there's a lot of slick marketing behind it. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, except when they claim otherwise - "I'm just a trader who started with Richard". And it seems pretty clear that there are a lot of shills posting, which I do have a problem with.
Anyway, those are my thoughts, fwiw... I'd love to hear a follow-up from Mary, who I think took the plunge.