Trading in Cape Town

I am a South African, currently located in London, but moving back to CT to set up and manage a proprietary trading firm we have planned.

Our proposed set up is a full service trading floor to proprietary traders. We will initially be concentrating on providing a connection to the Eurex derivatives exchange, but will eventually provide connections to CBOT, CME & LIFFE. Due to our contacts in the Telecommunications arena in South Africa we will be able to provide traders with connections to the exchange as fast (in terms of latency) as those found in Europe and the States. We will charge proprietary traders a desk fee and competitive commissions on round trip transaction costs. we will be able to provide access to Bloomberg, Reuters, and CQG for charting. We will provide facilities to own account and backed traders.

The quality of life in CT is excellent. There are beautiful mountains, 14 of them in fact, some of the most spectacular beaches in the world, and the cost of living is less than half of what it is in London, New York or Chicago. We can assist you with renting a property out there or give you an idea of the cost and what you can expect to get. I can give you a good estimation of any major living expenses also (e.g. medical insurance, leasing a vehicle etc.)

Please send me an email if you have any specific questions to glenncameron@walla.com or post any general comments or questions here.

Anybody interested in trading from South Africa, please get in touch.

I lived in Durban (nice warm sea & reasonable property prices not like your side !) for nearly 20 years, until 1999, and recently went back for a couple of months over Christmas. As expected Telkom connectivity still wasn't great, even their so-called broadband offering, and I ran up a HELL of a phone bill in the time. Their dedicated line was none too clever either, according to a fellow trader in La Lucia, but anyway, I presume that you'll have a decent pipe lined up. I'd have to agree with you that it's still a great place to live most of the time, despite the crime etc. I might be tempted to join you if you're connecting to CME & ECBOT.

rog1111

Thanks for your reply. Our dedicated leased lines will be run through UUnet International and use the SAT 2 connection to make the link into the exchange hubs. This is the same infrastructure the exchanges would use if they were to set up hubs in SA. It does not involve Telkom and as such we can avoid the problems you have described in terms of connectivity. in addition, as we will be using fibre optic connections end to end, the latency we will have on the line will be the same as trading in the centre of London. In addition we will have two redundant lines as back ups, and we have service level agreeements in place with UUnet guaranteeing our up time.

We are well aware that speed and reliability are the main concerns when it comes to trading. As we will be capitalised by one of the large european clearing banks, their reputation will also be on the line, so we are carefully planning our technical infrastructure, using experts in the networking field.

We will initially supply connectivity to Eurex, and then move on to provide connectivity into the other 3 major derivative exchanges i.e. LIFFE, CBOT, CME. Please email me your details at glenncameron@walla.com, so that I can keep you abreast of developments.

The prices in South Africa used to be 1/3 of that of London but when comparing Cape Town prices are now on a par with any major European or North American city with the exception for housing which is slightly cheaper in Cape Town.
The weather in the Cape is not that great and the sea is freezing.

However, it is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

South African is statistically more dangerous than Colombia so if Colombia scares you as a country to live in then so should South Africa. Johannesburg has way more murders, rapes and hijackings per capita than any other city in the world. Per 1,000 people per annum the murder rate is:
Johannessburg: 110
Washington DC: 80
New York: 50

Cape Town: I haven't been able to find the murder rate.

Not too bad if you have armed guards patrolling your grounds and you keep the windows up in the car when in town (make sure the glass is armoured though).

What are the prospects of a Robert Mugabe clone coming to power in SA? - Too high fo me.

Thanks for the offer but no thanks.

LII

We hope to have a someone level headed like Robert Mugabe take over from Mbeki soon.

Sounds like my ideal woman - 3' 6" tall with a flat head - somewhere to rest your beer!