Mirae Asset buys Okasan Securities' proprietary trading unit. The deal is worth about $32 million. Nikkei Asia reported it on October 28.
What is being bought. A proprietary trading unit is a team that trades the company's own money, not clients' money. All trading results stay within the company. This is exactly what prop trading is in its original, institutional form.
Why this matters to a trader. The trading desk was valued in money and sold like any other asset. That means access to trading capital is a commodity with its own price.
Who are the parties to the deal?
- Mirae Asset - the buyer, a major South Korean financial group
- Okasan Securities - the seller, a Japanese brokerage company
- About $32 million - the price of the proprietary trading unit
An important detail. The client brokerage business is not part of the deal. It concerns only the trading desk.
Why does Mirae Asset want this?
It's an entry into Japan. The group gets a working team and ready-made trading infrastructure. It won't have to build the business from scratch.
- A ready team. The traders already work in the Japanese market.
- Ready infrastructure. Trading systems and market access don't need to be built anew.
- Speed. A new market opens immediately, not after years.
What does this mean for a trader?
Capital has a price. At the holding level, access to trading nominal is paid for in tens of millions of dollars.
The main point: a trading desk changes hands like any other asset. Both institutions and private traders pay for the right to trade other people's money - just different amounts.
For a private trader, the same access is sold by prop firms. Terms vary from firm to firm, and they are worth comparing in the prop firm catalog.
What's next?
No details yet. The timeline for closing the deal has not been disclosed. The fate of the unit's team has also not been announced.
- Deal timeline - not stated
- Future of the team - not disclosed
- Data source - Nikkei Asia publication of October 28
Institutions buy a desk, retail traders get a challenge
Big players buy a whole trading desk. A private trader places the same trades with their own deposit. The nominal is provided by a prop firm: you pay for the evaluation, pass it, and work within its limits. Only the limits differ from firm to firm - some calculate the daily loss from the account maximum, while others close access after a single trade at the moment statistics are released. It's easier to compare this line by line before the evaluation fee is gone.