1. Is Chimera Securities a registered broker-dealer?
Yes. Chimera Securities is registered with the SEC as a broker-dealer.

2. Who is Chimera's Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO)?
Chimera Securities is a member of the Chicago Board of Options Stock Exchange (CBSX).

3. What trading platforms do you use?
Chimera Securities trades on the Anvil, Lightspeed Trader, and Sterling Trader platforms (Anvil will continue to be offered after June 30th, 2010).

4. Where are securities cleared?
Securities are cleared at Assent LLC and Wedbush Securities.

5. Does Chimera have retail brokerage customers?
No. Chimera Securities only trades for its own account. People who currently trade their own customer accounts may be interested in contacting us to find out if our resources would be a good fit for them. If so, we can discuss the possibility of joining our firm as a proprietary trader.

6. Does Chimera hire or take on experienced traders?
Yes. Candidates with trading experience, whether they worked at another proprietary trading firm or trade their own account, should contact us to discuss their situation.

7. Do traders at Chimera Securities need a Series 7 license?
While we do not currently require the Series 7, the CBOE has proposed a rule change on this issue.  There is no time frame in place but we expect that this requirement will eventually be enacted.

8. What will my responsibilities be as an employee of Chimera Securities?
Your only duty will be to trade. You will be responsible for trading the firm's capital and learning as much as possible.

9. If Chimera Securities hires me, will I have clients?
No. Employees trade the firm's capital. You will make your own decisions and your own trades (with guidance while learning).

10. What separates Chimera Securities from its competition?

• Chimera does not accept capital contributions nor charge training fees from inexperienced traders, and in some cases, Chimera pays salary and bonus to them.
  Since Chimera takes all of the financial risk on its employees, it has every incentive to make sure its traders succeed.
  
  
• Chimera is a registered broker-dealer and is therefore overseen by its SRO and the SEC.
  While some competitors are structured similarly, many are not. As a regulated entity, the additional level of oversight should provide employees and other traders a measure of comfort that unregulated entities cannot provide.
  
  
• Chimera's predecessor entity was formed in 2000, and the principals have been actively training traders since 1999.
  While that may not seem like a long time, it makes Chimera one of the oldest companies in the field. During that time, we have seen many different types of trading markets. Part of Chimera's success and confidence is that it has a proven track record of making money in all types of market conditions. Our training program, developed over many years, relies on successful and experienced traders to teach methods and strategy. Chimera's professional trading environment is geared both to increase the profitability of experienced traders and to facilitate the learning process for new traders.
  
  
• All remote and on-site traders of Chimera Securities have access to unique trading tools:
  • All traders receive a FREE Trade the News account.
  • All traders can use our electronic Locate GUI
    This tool automatically links Market Maker / Level II windows in our trading platform to the largely automated Stock Loan desk. As you change Market Maker boxes, the application requests the prices for any stocks that are not "Easy to Borrow" and allows you to accept locates and get short faster than other traders. This can be a big advantage, especially in fast-moving stocks.

11. Do I need to have my own money to trade with?
No. If you are hired by Chimera as an inexperienced proprietary trading employee, you will trade the firm's capital.

12. What is the difference between being a trader at Chimera Securities and trading for an investment bank?
Trading at Chimera never means clerking or acting as someone else's assistant. Almost immediately, new employees are allocated capital and start learning to trade... by trading. Trading is Chimera's only business, so all initiatives and efforts are trading-focused.

13. What do Chimera's traders trade?
Chimera's traders trade equities and ETFs listed on the domestic exchanges.

14. What hours do Chimera's employees work?
New traders work from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. Typically, experienced employees work from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday.

15. Does Chimera Securities support remote trading?
Yes, for experienced traders only. No new hires are permitted to trade remote, and no remote training is offered. Chimera can loan laptops to its experienced employees if they wish to trade while traveling.

16. Does Chimera Securities support Black Box trading?
Yes. Options include full in-house development and use of our libraries and programming directly to our execution firm's API (with support from us). For those with technical strategies, we offer Chimera Auto-Trader Link (Catalink), which links strategies written in Tradestation's EasyLanguage or eSignal's EFS to our execution platform. Please contact us with inquiries.

17. Does Chimera offer a benefits package to their employees?
Yes. There are optional medical, dental, and vision plans available to all employees of Chimera Securities after a short waiting period.