“I liken it to a snowball – it’s quite hard to start a snowball rolling, but once it’s rolling it picks up others and the snowball gets bigger and more attractive, then it’s just self-fulfilling after that. Hopefully.” Hamer also outlined why automation is more prevalent in Europe than in Australia. Language barriers and time zone differences between Europe and other regional markets drove the need for standardised messaging. Australia has the technology to move forward with automation, but the mindset of investment professionals needs to change before this can be exploited. Munro agrees with Hamer, saying it all comes down to prioritising automation as important. But this discussion has been going on for past last 10 years and automation still had not been prioritised, Munro says. Hamer would like to have seen more progress on automation in the last few years but is optimistic that increasing competition will force someone to act.