The Trading Cafe Celebrates FCA Authorisation on its Journey from Trading Education to Regulated Investment Management Firm

 The Trading Cafe is pleased to announce that it has been granted regulatory authorisation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to operate as a regulated investment firm, under the name The Trading Cafe Ltd. This authorisation enables the company to manage investments on a discretionary basis and to deal in investments both as a principal and as an agent, in line with permissions set out under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

This authorisation places The Trading Cafe Ltd under the applicable rules of the FCA Handbook, marking a significant milestone in the company’s evolution.

Having started as a Hong Kong–based trading education platform, supporting thousands of students through structured educational programmes, The Trading Cafe launched its UK investment arm, The Trading Cafe Ltd, to help traders transition from theory to practice. The business now not only educates aspiring traders, but also provides a pathway into a regulated investment management environment.

Authorisation has been a cornerstone of The Trading Cafe’s growth strategy. With FCA approval, the company can open a corporate trading account, seed the fund with internal capital, activate a team of salaried, internally trained traders, and build infrastructure to support external capital management. Importantly, this creates a pathway for standout students from the educational platform – which remains a separate, non-regulated entity – to transition into funded trading roles within a regulated firm.

One of the first recruits to The Trading Cafe Ltd’s investment arm is Brent Carlile, the 2024 World Cup Champion of Futures Trading. In addition to his competitive success, Carlile holds an MSc in Finance and both Series 3 and Series 34 licenses, bringing the combination of practical expertise and professional accreditation that the firm seeks to cultivate.

While FCA authorisation represents the culmination of years of preparation, it is also the beginning of the next chapter for The Trading Cafe. The company intends to open a corporate broker account, commence live trading with its own principal capital to test operational and compliance systems, and begin portfolio management under real-time risk controls. At the same time, it will onboard its first full-time traders from the educational arm into its regulated investment business.

The longer-term vision is to build a regulated, scalable, multi-strategy trading fund, with ambitions to expand significantly in assets under management, staffed primarily by traders trained within The Trading Cafe’s education ecosystem.

“We want to be the firm that proves independent talent, when trained properly and held to high standards, can succeed in financial markets,” says Peter Visser, co-founder of The Trading Cafe. “Equally, we want to do this with structure, integrity, and control. Achieving FCA authorisation is a major step forward. We believe it sets a new benchmark in the retail trading and education space, and we look forward to building on this foundation.”

The Trading Cafe Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to conduct investment management and dealing activities. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Educational services provided by The Trading Cafe are not regulated by the FCA.