In the ever-evolving finance landscape, proprietary trading firms stand at the horizon of a shift towards sustainable and responsible investments.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles are becoming increasingly important in the financial sector as more and more businesses are considering the social impact they have on the surrounding landscape.
Future trends show that sustainable business practices are necessary to secure the health and prosperity of our planet.
If consideration is not put into how a proprietary trading firm’s investments into companies and who they’re funding, they could fuel our planet's demise.
So let’s dive in and see how this widespread ESG integration is playing a role in the actions of proprietary trading firms and their traders (AKA you) today.
Integration of ESG Factors
Over the years, the Integration of ESG principles in the financial sector has skyrocketed. Investors, traders, and large shareholders are all demanding more transparency, accountability, and consideration from companies for the environment.
It’s largely stemmed from an increased recognition of climate change, social injustices, and large corporate scandals.
Companies are being forced to use sustainable business practices to continue receiving the funding they once received so easily. They can no longer build their empires care-free, but instead must first consider the impact on the world.
One of the primary ways that investors assess which companies to give their funds to is through analysis of the company’s compliance with the ESG principles. These are environmental, social, and governmental measures of a company.
When a company performs well in all three categories, their score therefore increases and that score can then be used as an easy measure for investors to choose sustainable investments.
Engagement and Advocacy
Although proprietary trading firms are not directly engaging in or forcing traders to invest in companies that follow ESG principles, more and more of their private funds are being used to invest in such companies.
This is especially true when it comes to longer-term, safe trades taken by these firms.
As well as this, many investors across the board are advocating for traders to filter through the companies they trade and invest in to ensure they meet proper ESG standards.
Prop traders who trade in the markets typically aren’t investing long-term through their funded accounts directly, but instead, use the profits from these accounts to grow their long-term portfolios.
This is where the bigger shift is seen, as more and more traders are putting their funds, or are being encouraged by other traders, to allot more capital towards ESG-abiding companies.
Future trends only show this engagement in sustainable investments increasing over time as more and more in the financial sector realize the importance of sustainability.
This doesn’t even have to come from the trading space alone. Many climate activists and voices for change are calling upon companies to embrace more eco-friendly practices such as using more renewable energy, giving workers better benefits, and abiding by government regulations without loopholes such as tax havens.
Risk Management
When it comes to analyzing the risks of a company from an ESG investing standpoint, it’s much more common to look at the fundamentals of that company rather than the typical technical analysis most traders are so used to. This is because ESG integration into trading comes through the form of long-term investing rather than short-term.
To be an investor in a company, you need to be an active stakeholder for a prolonged period. This means investing in such companies is typically a longer-term investment.
That’s why it’s more important to look at the fundamentals behind a company, but this time with a twist. Instead of looking at the typical statistics like the 52-week high or low, or how many jobs they’re creating, we can instead put on our ESG lenses.
Using them, we can analyze a company from the perspective of its carbon emissions, water usage, human rights violations, and corporate governance practices. By choosing companies that are performing well and/or plan to perform better in the future, we can effectively analyze them fundamentally for the long term via ESG principles.
Now, analysis like this does not guarantee profits or gains in the market. This is a very new concept to the financial sector, and you most definitely should do your research.
This is just a new concept and way of analyzing a company that many are advocating for in the sustainable investment space.
Innovation and Collaboration
Since proprietary trading firms are typically such large stakeholders and investors in companies, they have a lot of say when it comes to new developments in technologies and innovations in their sectors.
As a result, proprietary trading firms that favor sustainable business practices and support ESG principles may advocate or lobby for a company to innovate in a more eco-friendly way than otherwise planned.
For example, a firm may use its influence through its large holdings in a company to promote the use of a new renewable energy initiative within the company.
They may also stress the importance of reducing offshore illegal labor that’s occurring within the company to generate profits, for fairer human treatment through proper salaries, hours, and working conditions.
As well as just the innovation of technologies within the companies, newer ETFs and index funds that center around ESG-abiding companies are being created more frequently, and soon enough, prop firms may start supporting them as valid instruments to trade on their platforms.
This would only fuel the innovation of these ESG principle-following companies and help to reduce the negative environmental and social impact humans have on the world.
If more and more prop firms adopt these ETFs as trading instruments they support, it could be a game-changer for the world as a whole since so much investment capital would be flowing towards these ESG-centered companies that otherwise may never have touched them.
Compliance and Reporting
Now the fact that prop firms are starting to demand more ESG principles to be integrated into companies is great and all, but it seems contradictory if the prop firm companies themselves do not follow these principles.
That’s why some prop firms are starting to follow them and using more renewable sources of energy, more efficient hardware and software to cut down on resource wastage, and choosing to employ skilled workers and provide them with the appropriate benefits, time off, and salaries.
Just like the companies, the prop firms themselves will also receive ESG ratings. This means that you can see how hard your favorite prop firm is working to save the environment right now!
Now when it comes to actually reporting these ratings to the public, independent ESG rating agencies are king. They conduct external objective evaluations of a company’s performance on the ESG scales and give great guidance to investors as to where to position their investments in the financial sectors.
Embracing ESG for Future-Proof Prop Trading FAQs
What are ESG principles, and why are they important in the financial industry?
ESG principles refer to how well a company considers the environmental, social, and governance factors in investment decision-making and risk management processes.
How are prop trading firms incorporating ESG principles into their investment strategies?
Prop trading firms are using strategies like ESG factor analysis and portfolio construction. They can also conduct exclusionary screening to find companies that follow the requirements or thresholds a company must surpass to be invested in.
What are the challenges faced by prop trading firms in adopting ESG principles?
Some key challenges in adopting ESG principles include how readily available data is and how consistent and reliable it is. It can be hard to find objectively true data about a company’s ESG ratings so only the best estimates may be used in some cases.
How are prop trading firms contributing to the development of industry standards and best practices for ESG integration?
Prop trading firms participate in initiatives and collaborations that aim to develop sustainable business practices which would in turn increase a company’s ESG rating.
What role do employee education and engagement play in promoting ESG principles within prop trading firms?
Employee education and engagement are crucial to helping the world understand ESG principles and investing. It starts small, but soon it will travel through word of mouth to more and more people. Soon enough, ESG will be known by many and commonly used to assess how well a company sustains the environment.
