Asia-Pacific , and Brazil were touted as key areas of focus for firms as they looked to grow , with onshore India specifically cited as a region for expansion by various respondents .

The breadth of opportunities available when it comes to trading in fresh jurisdictions , is clear to see by various recent market moves which has seen a surge in partnerships and investments across both frontier and emerging markets .

Speaking to The TRADE in October 2023 , emerging markets expert Mark Mobius highlighted the significant potential of these jurisdictions specifically : “ The big boy on the block is going to be India for of a range of reasons , they ’ re developing at an incredible pace , for example their technology which is getting better and better every day . India is definitely number one on the list .

“[…] We ’ re finding companies that are most profitable and have great growth opportunities in Brazil , Taiwan , South Korea , Turkey , South Africa .”

Following a strong start to the year , sentiment is soaring across the prop trading landscape . Looking to Q2 , 24 % of respondents stated that they were ‘ very optimistic ’ about the environment for their business performance .

Over half ( 51 %) of those surveyed were also positive , responding that they were ‘ quite optimistic ’. No firms held a negative outlook , with the remaining 24 % neither optimistic nor pessimistic .

Elsewhere , the report found that as prop firms continually look to further expand their reach globally and continue to confront the everincreasing regulatory burdens , there is a clear disparity in terms of approaches either side of the Atlantic .

Senior executives from EU firms were found to be spending significantly more time on regulation than their US counterparts .

Almost half of EU-based proprietary trading firms were found to spend between 26 % and 50 % of their time on regulations , whereas in the US 70 % of those surveyed responded that typically just 1-10 % of their time was spent on regulations .

Will Mitting , founder of Acuiti , explained : “ This quarter ’ s report

Will Mitting

highlights the extent of the challenges facing firms .

“ One major issue for both firms in the EU and the UK is that new rules coming into force are typically automatically applied to Mifid II registered firms . So , while the initial regulation contained within Mifid II was appropriate , the level of increased rules over the past decade is creating significant pressures on firms .” The report surveyed senior executives from more than 100 proprietary trading firms globally .

12 THETRADETECH DAILY