Cities for starting a prop firm/hedge fund?

misaki · Jan 20, 2013

Quote from kmgilroy89:

If you considered Austin, consider Houston, especially if your firm invests or would like to invest in energy. I'm sure you can steal some smart physicists from the space program and energy companies if you can make it worth their while. Northern Virginia is also good for finding PhD's who went to go work for the government in DC.
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Didn't think of that. Gotcha. Physicists who have done substantial work in cosmology and QCD are great for the job.

Quote from EliteTraderNYC:

divide the traders into two groups:

Profitable:
South Florida

Unprofitable:
Antarctica
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That's hilarious.

Quote from ixus:

Dublin, Ireland.

Corporation Tax.
Timezone.
6 hour flight to East Coast.
SIG, Virtu & Geneva established there.

Plenty of IT talent with every US multinational having their Euro HQ there. Four Universities within easy reach of the city.
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Dublin was not on our radar before this. We were actually recommended Cape Town (+1h away from CET, pretty convenient). But the flight time, and moving all the way out there with no networks in the region was too reclusive for our liking. But now that you mention it, Dublin sounds like a fantastic place.

******

I think I've gathered enough suggestions to reassess our decision. We've decided to leave a small presence in MA, but relocate our main office to another place (have to hold a revote on the exact city, but given the new options, I think we're going to get a better answer this time). I'll definitely be happy to continue participating in this thread if the topic benefits anyone else.

Cheers!

bone · Jan 20, 2013

Quote from oldtime:

I have two women that want to marry me, both of them are extremely beautiful. One of them is blonde, the other a brunette. Do any of you experienced traders have advice which one I should choose?

thanks in advance
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Reason with them about economies of scale and that wonderful community feeling of a threesome.

ferdy · Mar 14, 2013

Quote from misaki:

I run a small prop firm (20+) and will like some suggestions on a good place to relocate our office.

Reasons being:

(1) My firm started out in MA only because it's near the grad schools/colleges that the early core of my team went to, but now that we are expanding, we figured that it will be good to decide on a place for proper economic reasons, before it becomes too late and cumbersome to move.

(2) Well, we are just sick of the east coast for personal reasons, and everyone in my firm has agreed to a move because we have enough capital to subsidize everyone's moving costs.

(3) We recently decided to go into investment management and restructure ourselves as a hedge fund. I understand there are advantages associated with being geographically "near" our potential investors. This is actually less of a concern as our revenue is still strong without our investors, so I don't want to be chained to our investors.

We're actually open to any city in USA. Possibly Europe or Japan. Our trading activity is scattered across the three (but mostly centered in Europe), and our investors are mostly concentrated in LA, with fragments in London and Tokyo. The legal impediments are sorted out, with our master fund offshore now.

I think it's a matter of convenience vs quality of life. It's easiest to move within USA, perhaps CA, but we already hate the night-shifts and starting the day around 2 AM for the European session. Capex and familiarity with the place is another issue. I'm not familiar with the costs outside of the US nowadays, but at least I know the computer equipment and office space is cheap and accessible here.

Thanks in advance!
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Have you thought of Toronto? Great base to pick up new recruits with the numbers of universities in the area. Just my 2 cents

oldtime · Mar 14, 2013

Quote from ferdy:

Have you thought of Toronto? Great base to pick up new recruits with the numbers of universities in the area. Just my 2 cents
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where is the best place to sleep and dream you run a prop shop?

marketsurfer · Mar 14, 2013

Palm Beach, baby!!!

http://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-funds-move-to-palm-beach-2013-2?op=1

http://dealbreaker.com/2013/01/palm-beach-county-is-the-next-great-hedge-fund-center/

oldxr · Mar 14, 2013

Nevada-Texas or any state with out too many restrictive tax laws.Heard some thing about Puerto Rico having some kind of special deal with capital gains taxes but I didnt get all the info.There are many business LLC'S registered in Nevada but thanks to the computor age they just use Nevada for an address.East coast and California have the same problems-high taxes and high cost of living.

Traveler · Mar 14, 2013

OP, what are your requirements for an office in the first place? All of these attributes are available somewhere but rarely in the same place, so you will have to prioritize.

Low cost of living
Availability of cheap university talent
IT connectivity
Proximity to financial centers / counter parties
Quality of life
Low taxation
Weather

trade4succes · Mar 14, 2013

Gibraltar

+climate
+tax
+if you like to live in spain

oldtime · Mar 14, 2013

Quote from trade4succes:

Gibraltar

+climate
+tax
+if you like to live in spain
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what is the tax rate in Spain?

It isn't that funny,any of these troubled countries that you hear about can attract business by lowering the corp tax rate

dolemitettu · Mar 15, 2013

Houston, TX...holla!!!!

Seriously, this place is on absolute fire right now. I hear the economic complaints coming from the rest of the country and I laugh, as there's no freaking way Houston can be so far ahead of the pack.