I met up with one of the guys from Burgess Wilson and they are going down a slightly different path to what I envisaged. It would still be fair to say that there is not a dedicated Algo / Quant company based here in Perth. Coming out of the meeting it was interesting to hear they have experienced the exact same frustrating amount of ignorance here in Perth re both algo trading and especially FX. If systematic trading was about digging up dirt we would have an abundant amount of ears.
However in all this ignorance is opportunity. Making something of that opportunity is the next step (albeit a very difficult one).
I put the feelers out recently because I know there is a tonne of talent here in Perth - I'm talking about the whole range of part time and full time (prop) traders, coders, phD maths guys and so on. Bringing these people together is not ground breaking and has been done already for many years around the world.
Despite Perth's affinity to mining it is actually a much better aligned location to the asian trading region. With Singapore, Hong Kong and Toyko in its zone it is ideally situated - cant say the same for the east coast.
Please forgive my perceived negativity - I love Perth. But I see an opportunity begging in a one-track minded economy.
