Pros
Good basic market mechanics, personal finance, and trading training. Learned basics of retirement and brokerage accounts. Great FINRA licensing program. Paid to study.
Cons
Joke managers who are less educated than most employees. Joke clients that think they are big shots because they trade 200 times a year in a $20k account. Management makes employees think they are actually making an impact on the business when they actually have no control whatsoever. Your bonus is 99% based on customer surveys which you have NO control over. And your manager has the authority to subjectively slice up the bonus pool based on who they like and do not like ( I did fine in bonuses, it is just a terrible way of handling it). Your variable comp as they like to call has very little to do with your overall performance. The Active Trader group has this allure of being a specialty group and close to an institutional trading desk, when really all it is is another phone site job. You just have to be a bit better at handling jerks on the phone and entering trades timely and accurately. Pay is very low, and exit opps are NON - Existent. It is nearly impossible to explain what you did in ATS to any future employers. Other than sponsoring to sit for the Series 4 exam you build zero career equity. Job and company is absolute joke, unless you are unmotivated and content being another # like most people who work there.