You need a good grasp of some trading terms to succeed in trading. One such term is proprietary trading. Proprietary trading (prop trading) is trading to make a direct profit rather than trading or earning a commission on a client’s behalf.
Financial institutions such as banks, hedge funds, brokerage firms, and many others can be proprietary traders. The institutions use their capital to engage in trading to earn profits.
Look like something you want to engage in? Don’t fret! I’ve compiled all you need to know about the pros and cons of proprietary trading in this article to guide your decision. With the introduction out of the way, let’s start with the benefits of prop trading.
Advantages Of Prop Trading
There are numerous benefits of prop trading. It generates profit through fees and commissions when an investment bank or brokerage firm trades on behalf of clients. Let’s examine the advantages prop trading firms offer to their clients more closely:
1. Hedging
One pro of a prop trading firm is that they can act as hedges for their clients. For instance, if an investor is bothered about the possible market direction, they can acquire a security that may likely increase in value if the market declines. This is called hedging your bets.
2. Trading Strategies
Proprietary trading firms usually have access to better trading strategies than individual investors. This is because they can trade faster than individual investors due to their access to more information.
3. Diversification
Proprietary trading firms can assist investors in portfolio diversification by trading various securities. This helps to limit the risk of investing in one asset.
4. Expertise
Proprietary trading firms have traders’ teams that are well-knowledgeable in the trading markets. For instance, a market-making firm will have traders specializing in various securities. This makes them more likely to earn returns than individual investors that lack this skill.
5. Enhanced Profits
Prop trading can be very lucrative to the trader; a user who wants to begin their career in the field can earn huge returns as soon as they start managing considerable capital. Thus, the more capital they manage, the more the profit potential. Hence, proprietary trading enables institutions to profit more than being a broker and earning just commissions.
6. Offers An Easy Entry to Trading For “Undercapitalized” Traders
A proprietary account is best because you can begin trading even if you have below 25000 dollars as capital. Also, it provides an easy entry option to trade even if the traders are less capitalized. Furthermore, it is an excellent way out as the purchasing power surpasses anything if you are a retail customer with below 25k for investing. As such, you can easily keep your money safe and use the leverage for investment.
7. Lesser Risk in Proprietary Trading
Proprietary trading is suggested because it offers less risk. It doesn’t matter if you have a big bank balance or less money in the account. Prop trading is still recommended. In Prop trading, you can use margin even with a small deposit. The minimum amount of money will be risk-free. Hence you can invest it in mutual funds or stocks for capital appreciation.
Other pros of prop trading include but are not limited to:
- Proprietary trading firms provide rebates
- Stockpile inventory of securities
- Proprietary trading is suitable for offering liquidity through open orders
- Proprietary trading entails leverage
- Proprietary trading firms give good support
Disadvantages Of Prop Trading
This article on the pros and cons of proprietary trading won’t be complete without looking at the risks of prop trading. Even though the pros of prop trading are numerous, it also has a few cons. Let’s examine the disadvantages of prop trading below:
1. Prop Trading Is Mostly Day Trading
Though proprietary trading offers high leverage, this often applies to day trading only. You may not get much leverage if you hold a position overnight. Most proprietary firms offer day trading only.
2. High Fees
The fees charged for the software you’re using by most proprietary trading firms are considerably high, mainly if you’re trading remotely. For software only, the monthly fees start at around 200 USD. Unlike retail clients’ prices, you might find the prop trading fees outrageous.
3. Prop Firms Can Steal Your Intellectual Property
For excellent traders with outstanding trading strategies, there is a high potential that someone at the back office is working hard to decode your strategy. Sometimes, firms piggyback on clients’ systems and teach them to use computers through machine learning.
4. Risk Of Losing Money
As a prop trader, your deposit won’t be insured and, therefore, is vulnerable to fraud and other business risks. This is primarily because of the lack of or minimal regulation. Because of this, it’s advisable for you only to deposit an amount that you can afford to lose. Retail clients, on the other hand, have their money insured because of the strict regulations of retail firms.
Now, What Do You Think?
Having considered the pros and cons of proprietary trading, do you think this kind of trading is something you will want to venture into? You may ask how you can access funds to trade with, or maybe you have the skill to trade but no capital. Now is the time to manage your skill and accounts with a prop firm. Open an account with Traders Support Funds to get started.
After opening the account, use coupon code “tradewithmac” to get a 1% reduction on your one-time fee. Pay the one-time fee for the trading capital you need, and let your skills make you that money. This will make Prop trading easy for you as a beginner, and through the firm, you can learn a lot of strategies by investing less.
Use the comment section if you have any questions or opinions. You can as well check out other related articles on proprietary trading.