A report on proprietary trading management, which surveyed senior executives on how their firms are approaching the return to the office, found that 42% reported a drop in productivity when working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Proprietary Trading Management Insight Report, conducted by Acuiti and produced in partnership with Avelacom, found that over half of proprietary trading firms now have most staff back in the office on a regular basis.
Firms in the UK are more likely to still be working from home while those in the US have brought the most staff back to the office.
Prop trading executives also pointed to the biggest barrier to growth: the time taken to develop traders. 54% of respondents from the Acuiti proprietary trading network cited this as a major barrier to growth. On the bright side, executives seem positive about the next three months: 65% said they were either quite positive or very positive.
As to hiring trends, the report found that US-based proprietary trading firms are hiring at a faster pace in Asia than in Europe.
North America is the biggest market for hiring, with 789 roles on offer. Asia comes second, with 328 roles being advertised by 58 of the major proprietary trading firms. Europe comes third, with 308 vacancies.
The report is designed to provide senior proprietary executives with a benchmark of how their peers are approaching key operational challenges. It also contains information on a series of metrics such as exchange growth and new contract launches.
Each quarter, network members can suggest questions and topics to be addressed in the report. Acuiti then surveys the network to compile the report. In Q1 2022 it will launch a Crypto Derivatives report, as well as one for asset managers and FCMs.
Avelacom has partnered with Acuiti to include its Avelacom Exchange Growth Index in the report. It is a quarter-on-quarter index of the fastest growing exchanges across derivatives and cash equities globally, as well as the 25 most traded new derivatives contracts launched in the previous quarter.
According to the index, MIAX Emerald, the US equity options exchange, is the fastest growing exchange by quarter-on-quarter volume growth, up by 70% quarter-on-quarter.
The cash equity markets of the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange were the second and third fastest growing exchanges.
NYMEX’s Micro WTI Crude Oil future was the most successful new contract launch followed by Argentinian exchange MATba ROFEX’s Discount National Treasury Bills future. Fastest growing contract data was provided by Euromoney TRADEDATA.
Aleksey Larichev, CEO of Avelacom said: “Proprietary trading firms have always been Avelacom’s stronghold for low latency connectivity and IT infrastructure solutions. Our partnership with Acuiti is an important way for us to stay abreast of the latest trends that affect this important client group. This will allow us to develop our product portfolio and to develop low latency routes that access those markets that are most in demand.”
Rick Steves
Rick Steves has seen business and economics through many lenses. He joined the financial services industry in 2009, and has been a financial journalist since 2011. He holds a degree in Business Administration and has experience producing real-time news, from both buy-side and sell-side, as well as for retail traders, brokers and service providers. Steves' work has appeared in a variety of online publications including FX Street, NewsBTC, FinanceFeeds, and The Industry Spread. Rick has great interest in the dynamics of the trading industry. The never-ending clash between technology, economics, regulation, and more importantly, the people.
