The Rise of Proprietary Trading: Opportunities, Legal, and Regulatory Landscape - Leverate (2024)

The Rise of Proprietary Trading: Opportunities, Legal, and Regulatory Landscape - Leverate (1)

In the last five years, several new ways to experience the thrill of leveraged CFD trading have been introduced for traders and brokers. One of the trading models that gained huge momentum with growing demand is Prop trading.

Prop Trading – how does it work?

A proprietary trading firm, often referred to as a prop firm, is a company that offers traders the opportunity to trade with the firm’s capital. In exchange for this access, traders typically agree to share a portion of the profits they generate.

There are many propriety trading firms, also known as prop trading for short. Prop firms vary from each other in their services, packages, and products, but they all have one thing in common. They offer the novice and the intermediate trader a unique mix of offerings that share the best from each world.

Traders interested in trading CFDs on FX, shares, commodities, and crypto can experience the thrill and opportunity of these unique trading instruments. Prop firms would offer education and limited risk of loss due to the steady and structured way that this product serves and engages the end user.

Unlike traditional investment firms, prop firms do not handle client funds. Instead, they focus solely on trading their own capital and retain a percentage of the profits generated from successful trades by revenue share. To become a trader at a prop firm, the firm will typically conduct some auditions during the trader selection process. Prop firms only choose highly skilled traders who pass their challenges as determined by the roles the prop firm sets.

A Prop Firm Challenge is a structured evaluation process designed to identify skilled traders who can potentially join the prop trading firm and trade the firm’s capital. These challenges are a crucial entry point for aspiring traders who wish to access substantial trading capital and the opportunities it brings. Each prop firm may have its own set of rules and requirements for their challenge. However, there are some common rules that most prop firms follow. These include Maximum daily loss, profit targets by day, maximum overall loss, and more.

However, it’s crucial to consider the legal and regulatory landscape before jumping in.

Legal and Ethical Dilemmas in Prop Trading

The legality of Prop firms has been a topic of debate. Regulations like the Volcker Rule and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act have made it more difficult for banks to engage in proprietary trading. As a result, many banks have shut down their proprietary trading functions or separated them from their core businesses.

Nonetheless, some specialized prop firms offer proprietary trading as a stand-alone service. These firms are typically not regulated, but they generally use their own capital for trading instead of client funds.

Although this lack of regulation makes it easier for traders to receive funding from prop firms, it also means that they may not have adequate protections and may be responsible for deciding whether to trust a particular prop firm.

Regulatory Ease for Prop Trading Firms

The regulatory ease for many prop trading firms is found in the fact that the education products and challenges are easily managed and operated. Many times, end-users purchase challenges that lead to growth in trading experience.

These challenges are easily operated by the prop firms and have much easier clearing and kyc conditions as well as less reporting and regulatory or operational costs. Some of the users who turn out to be sophisticated and successful traders are part of second-stage revenue creation by trading and sharing the loss or potential profit of the prop firm’s own account with a third-party broker.

In all cases, the regulatory process for opening a Prop firm is much lighter, as on the one hand, the prop firm, does not hold client funds and is less likely to have potential issue if cyber-attacks or unexpected risks that might danger client funds.

Conclusion

To sum it up, the exciting world of prop trading enables trading academies, entrepreneurs, and social influencers, to engage with potential traders without the need to have a licensed financial institution (Brokerage), but rather create challenges and connect successful traders to funded accounts.

This trading method enables substantial ease with minor regulatory restrictions on one hand and offers a light and seamless trading experience for the end user’s journey from novice to experienced trader.

To streamline the process and access essential tools and integrations affordably, consider a white-label prop trading platform that will lead your firm to success and help it reach its goals quickly and efficiently.

Leverate provides prop turnkey solution that offer everything you need in one place, from trading platforms to liquidity, CRM, Trader dashboard, and client zone.
Leverate offers a seamless experience for all your prop firm needs. Partner with us and join the top-notch prop firms. Our team is ready to help you on your journey toward success in proprietary trading. Contact us to get started today!

The Rise of Proprietary Trading: Opportunities, Legal, and Regulatory Landscape - Leverate (2024)

FAQs

Is prop firm trading legal? ›

Even though prop firms typically trade their own funds, they must still comply with AML and KYC laws to maintain the integrity of the financial system. This involves establishing reporting mechanisms to detect and prevent money laundering, ensuring due diligence when engaging with external parties.

What are the pros and cons of proprietary trading? ›

Proprietary trading offers substantial benefits such as increased profits, access to capital, and flexibility in trading strategies. However, it also comes with risks, including less regulatory protection and higher fees.

Are prop firms dying out? ›

In recent months, several prominent proprietary trading firms have gone out of business. This wave of closures began when regulatory authorities in the US and Canada froze My Forex Funds, a major player in the industry. Following this, True Forex Funds, Surge Trader, and Skilled Funded Traders all shut down.

Why do people fail prop firms? ›

Many traders fail to control the emotional urge to keep pushing for higher returns, often ignoring the prudent step of taking profits at planned levels or adjusting stop losses to protect against market reversals.

Are prop firms too good to be true? ›

As always, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Instead, look for reasonable trading conditions such as 12% max drawdown and 8% profit target. Looking forward, it would benefit the prop trading industry greatly if there was a specific regulatory body to regulate prop firms.

Are prop firms risky? ›

Proprietary trading is a great way to start trading without much capital, but there is a considerable risk of losing money. Your success rate reflects how well you can handle the risks.

Why is proprietary trading bad? ›

Personal Risk: One of the significant drawbacks of prop trading is the potential personal financial risk. If a trader doesn't perform well, they may lose their deposit, and in some cases, their job. Loss Limitations: Prop firms often implement daily loss limits to protect their capital.

Do prop traders make money? ›

Also known as “prop trading,” it offers higher earnings potential much earlier in your career than jobs like investment banking or private equity. It's arguably the most merit-based industry within finance: if you make millions of dollars for your firm, you'll earn some percentage of it.

What happens if you lose money in a prop firm? ›

When you are trading with a prop firm, your losses are usually limited to the foregone risk of your challenge/account fee. You are generally not liable for the prop firm's lost funds.

Will prop firms be banned? ›

The speculation now is that the governing bodies and regulators will put a ban on the whole prop firm industry – which is not going to happen. The prop firm industry has been alive, well and regulated for decades. It's only the online prop firm space that is yet to see regulation.

Do prop firms have a future? ›

Prop firms have achieved huge milestones, far better than legacy proprietary trading businesses like banks. Most notably, they have lowered entry barriers for new prop firms and retail traders. Based on these successes, the proprietary trading industry experienced one of its best years in 2022.

What percentage of traders pass prop firm challenges? ›

What does it take to go through this evaluation stage? In September 2023, Forex Prop Firm published their challenge passing rates, revealing that only 10.59% of participants were able to pass the first level, and a mere 9.26% qualified for the advanced pro level.

What is the return of a prop trader? ›

Although extremely tough, if 5% of trades are routinely made each month, the annual return for the trader is 60%. It is a lot given that the most successful traders typically generate a 20–30% profit annually. With a 100k account, 60% would translate to 60.000 dollars, with the trader making roughly 48,000 dollars.

What are prop firm challenges? ›

A Prop Firm Challenge is a structured evaluation process designed to identify skilled traders who can potentially join the prop trading firm and trade the firm's capital. These challenges are a crucial entry point for aspiring traders who wish to access substantial trading capital and the opportunities it brings.

Is prop firm trading legit? ›

We need to be very alert with prop firms, here we can put the companies that you consider to be a scam company, the biggest problem is that they are not regulated, they use tricks to make you lose. If you have or consider it to be a trick, report it here so that we do not fall into the trap.

Do you need a license to be a prop trader? ›

Prop trading firms are less heavily regulated than regular brokerages and broker-dealers. However, if such laws apply, you must still properly register your business and get licensed. For example, in the US, CFD trading is prohibited, and you can only offer prop trading of exchange-traded securities.

Why was prop trading banned? ›

Attached to the Dodd-Frank Act, the rule was intended to limit banks' ability to make speculative investments that do not benefit their customers.

Can I trade stocks with prop firms? ›

Also known as "prop trading," this type of trading activity occurs when a financial firm chooses to profit from market activities rather than thin-margin commissions obtained through client trading activity. Proprietary trading may involve the trading of stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, or other instruments.

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