* Futex HQ based in Woking, suburb outside London
* "Flash crash" suspect Sarao said to have worked there
* Prop trading often yields little money to start with
* Firms charge traders fees for use of office
By Sudip Kar-Gupta
WOKING, Britain, April 24 (Reuters) - The British trader accused of sparking market chaos in 2010 cut his teeth in a drab building in a sleepy suburb that highlights how "day traders" dreaming of glory have to first tackle grim offices, zero glamour and high risks.
The building is home to Futex, one of several so-called "trading farms" in the UK that give training, office space and equipment to people prepared to make short-term trades, mostly within a day, with their own money in the hope of being hired or sponsored for a cut of their profits.
According to former Futex trader Simon Maelzer and comments on social media by other Futex employees, Navinder Singh Sarao - who has been accused by U.S. authorities of contributing to the May 2010 "flash crash" in Wall Street - was there during the 2008 financial crisis, though the exact dates are unclear.
"(Sarao) sat in a separate part of the company, away from the rowdy bunch," said Maelzer, who worked at Futex for a few months in 2008. "He created his own space on the trading floor. I always noticed this guy, who was completely 'in the zone'."
Maelzer, now a global macro strategist for research firm MacroVigilance.com, said that while Futex was a good company, those who joined were in for a hard ride at the start.
"The Futex set-up was tough for beginners and many would get despondent and give up, although this is typical of the futures market in general. I didn't even get a salary at all," he said.
The Futex traders - mainly men aged 25 to 35 - would make the daily commuter grind from London to Woking, around 23 miles (37 km) to the south west, bringing their own laptops and software programmes, and then take on the markets in the spartan Futex office, said Maelzer.
Futex would provide them with office space, desks, terminals carrying market data and phonelines and would take on the most successful ones, such as Sarao, help to fund them and share in their profits.
For Jonathan Roy - whose first interview was at Futex after leaving Liverpool University - the fact that he had to go to Woking, an archetypal commuter town far from the glamour of the capital, was slightly offputting.
"It's a bit of a trek just to get down there."
HIGH FEES
One Futex trader described Sarao in a March YouTube clip this year as a 'legend', and an online petition was underway by other traders to block Sarao's extradition to the United States.