Acuiti Launches Prop Trading Insight Series

Acuiti has launched the Proprietary Trading Management Insight Report, a new product it says is aimed, as the name suggests, at senior executives from the global proprietary trading community.

The report, which is produced in partnership with Avelacom, 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.

Acuiti has built and continues to grow a network of senior proprietary trading executives from across the globe. Each quarter, network members can suggest questions and topics to be addressed in the report. Acuiti then surveys the network to compile the report. The first report features a deep-dive analysis of how proprietary trading firms are approaching the return to the office.

The report also publishes the newly launched Avelacom Exchange Growth Index, a quarter- on-quarter index of the fastest growing exchanges across derivatives and cash equities globally. Also included are profiles of the 25 most traded new derivatives contracts launched in the previous quarter.

In addition to the regular features, Acuiti says it will build metrics and benchmarks based on requests from members of the network. The first report includes a breakdown of global hiring trends based on job postings from 58 of the top firms globally and an index of the fastest growing proprietary trading firms by headcount, based on LinkedIn data.

The launch is the first in a series of focused reports that Acuiti says it is currently developing. In Q1 2022 it will launch a crypto derivatives report, as well as one for asset managers and FCMs.

The first report finds 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. 42% of senior proprietary trading executives surveyed reported a drop in productivity when working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The time taken to develop traders is the biggest barrier to growth for proprietary trading firms, with 54% of respondents from the proprietary trading network citing this as a major barrier to growth. Separately, proprietary trading executives are positive about the next three months – 65% said they were either quite or very positive.

US-based proprietary trading firms are hiring at a faster pace in Asia than in Europe. Overall, 328 roles are being advertised in Asia by 58 of the major proprietary trading firms globally compared with 309 in Europe. North America is still the biggest market for hiring with 789 roles on offer.

“Proprietary trading firms have always been Avelacom’s stronghold for low latency connectivity and IT infrastructure solutions,” says Aleksey Larichev, CEO of Avelacom. “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.”