Proprietary trading firms performed well during the initial market fallout from ‘Liberation Day’ and the unprecedented volatility that followed, providing liquidity and support across asset classes, the latest Acuiti Proprietary Trading Management Insight Report has found.
The quarterly report, which was released today and is produced in partnership with Avelacom, is based on a survey of the Acuiti Proprietary Trading Expert Network, which comprises senior proprietary trading executives around the world. The report provides insights into the key trends facing the community.
This quarter’s report found that just 7% of proprietary trading firms suffered losses during the volatility seen in early April, a testament to the investments in risk management and trading strategies that have been made over the past decade.
Furthermore, the report found that 65% of proprietary trading firms are planning to grow their headcount, with a focus on hiring traders and software developers, as well as network engineers and risk management roles.
This partly reflects the increase in volatility seen in the first quarter of this year, as well as the rise of AI and related technology investments to create a competitive advantage in what is expected to be a busy year. The hiring plans come as firms reported that increases in salaries for most roles had slowed over the past 12 months.
Aleksey Larichev, CEO of Avelacom: "We are seeing a variety of requirements from proprietary firms. While most continue to invest in low-latency strategies and the need to be the fastest, others are exploring alternative approaches, like risk-focused. Our proprietary network is designed to handle all these needs, from ultra-low latency to multi-level redundancy across all asset markets, as well as risk-specific solutions like bypassing certain geographies due to geopolitical concerns.”
Ross Lancaster, Head of Research at Acuiti: “Proprietary trading firms perform a vital role to the market during times of volatility providing liquidity in times of market stress,” says . “The volatility during early April put significant strain on the market but proprietary trading firms proved the value they add and performed well as a result.”
Other key findings in this quarter’s report include:
- Alongside market making and trading a book intraday, over the past decade, there has been significant opportunity in offering execution services directly to the buy-side.
- Just 19% of prop firms think that pre-hedging when executing client order flow should be allowed.
- Improved market maker schemes and the revision of capital requirements would provide the biggest boost to European market liquidity.
- Rising costs are forcing firms to reduce investment in low-latency trading and resulting in a shift to lower-latency strategies
- The 24/7 nature of cryptocurrency markets is the key challenge in integrating crypto trading into accounting practices for TradFi assets.
To request your copy, visit here: https://www.acuiti.io/proprietary-trading-management-insight-report-q2-2025-2/
