Four college kids started a hedge fund. Should I invest?
TBT: Originally posted August 2012
One of the biggest problems with having large corporations as clients is that there’s so much crap you’re not allowed to invest in actively in order to prevent any potential allegations of insider trading. There’s also a bunch of rules and paperwork that, honestly, few bankers have time to keep track of.
As a result, a lot of bankers just stick their money in ETFs (or a nice piece of Hamptons real estate) and forget about it. (I admit it, most of my money’s in ETFs right now.)
But let’s face it, we all know that you haven’t made it until you pay more in capital gains tax than in ordinary income tax. Passive investment is boring and is largely for betas and scrubs whose 401(k) is their largest source of liquid capital ( psssh!).
So as you start to accumulate capital, if you want to get those big returns, you eventually have to find someone to manage things on the personal investment front for you.
This isn’t easy. No-name firms and individuals deliver inconsistent results and are sometimes shady. Bulge bracket firms deliver consistently shitty results and are consistently shady. And you're never gonna get personalized attention unless you've got $50m+ (which I don't have) or you are one of the larger clients in a small shop.
To this end, I've been doing a little due diligence lately, and thanks to this article (http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/10/worlds-most-oblivious-hedge-fund.h…) I uncovered a real gem that I wanted to share with you guys.
Presenting Lumina Investments (http://www.luminainvestments.com/), a group of college kids from UNC (but UNC Wilmington, not UNC Chapel Hill). And one guy from East Carolina University. (I always thought the Carolinas were divided into North and South, but I admit being a tad fuzzy on those southern states.)
Anyway, Lumina provides “global macro event-driven investing,” which sounds like a pretty good idea. Of course, they’re not the only global macro shop out there. So what are Lumina’s points of differentiation?
Well, one of their goals is “performance during macro events,” which I take to mean that when something is going on in the world, they try to make money on it. That’s the kind of thinking I want in the guys who are managing my money. So far, so good.
But that’s not all. They also aim for “capital preservation during non-event environments”. By “capital preservation”, I assume they mean that they don’t come to work on slow news days. I would hazard a guess that they switch over to “capital preservation” mode during midterms and finals as well. Overall, I approve of this. If the guy who manages my money doesn’t know how to make money in a steady market, I don’t want him trying.
But more importantly, I can’t find a single thing on their website I disagree with. Listen to the CEO, Elliot Carol, who says in big screaming quotes on the front page: “Right now, macro events are driving the market. We believe this is the new normal.”
Now, anyone who was around 10/20 years ago would probably also say that it was the old normal. But let’s not split hairs. This is a pretty sage statement for a 21-year-old.
Let’s check out the head of investor relations, who says, “When it comes to investor relations, Lumina’s primary goal is to maximize transparency between our investors and the investment team.” Now here’s a man who knows what investor relations is. Nicely played.
I read the quote where they admit to having less than a million dollars under management, so I was still a little wary of handing these kids my money until I saw that two of them have passed the Series 65. There’s a picture of them wearing actual suits (and even gold tie clips). And there is a Firm CRD number proudly displayed at the bottom of every page. So you know these kids are serious. At least serious enough to have paid the $300 CRD fee to FINRA.
You gotta admit, these kids are douching way above their weight. I wouldn't be surprised to see this level of douching out of Dukies or UNC-Chapel Hill, but Wilmington? I bet panties are dropping all up and down the Carolina coast. (Hopefully not all of them are size XXL from WalMart.)
The only problem is that I can’t tell exactly what Lumina Investments is. Apparently the director of research and investments, Zach Cefaratti, said to the reporter, "We’re not playing around here. This is a serious hedge fund, doing serious and big things. This isn’t a joke."
But after the story, the firm said on Twitter: “To clarify, Lumina isn't a hedge fund, it's an IA firm. We don't turn on the lights w/o asking our compliance guy.”
But, regardless of what they are, the press believes in this "serious hedge fund" and the "serious and big things" they are doing. At least, the hometown press does. A quote on Lumina’s webpage from the Greater Wilmington Business Journal says, “Both innovative and conservative, these young men believe that their strategy will create long-term success.” So the hometown paper reports that these kids believe in themselves. You can't get much more glowing praise than that.
But what do folks from the big city think? Well, no less a personage than Kevin Roose (New York Times alum, writing for New York Magazine) says, “We don't typically provide investment advice, but trust us on this one: Get on the ground floor, if you still can.”
At first I had a suspicion that Roose’s quote was meant as sarcasm since it was the last line of a not-exactly-glowing article, but I was reassured once I saw that Lumina had stuck the whole quote on its front page as an endorsement from New York Magazine.
I don’t typically take investment advice from journalists, but maybe Roose is onto something. These kids have a really unusual combination of traits. Youth. Passion. A website designer. A passing familiarity with investment buzzwords. The balls to wear contrasting collars while still in college. And a near-total lack of self-awareness that promises, if not outsized returns, at least an outsized opportunity for entertainment.
I’m thinking of calling them up this week and asking what their minimums are. It might be worth it to become a client just so I can watch the fun. What do you monkeys think?
I think you should do it. This was a great write-up by the way.
What frustrates me most is their simple lack of ability to present themselves in a serious manner. Being young/inexperienced is no excuse for poor presentation. If they spent a little more time thinking about how to pitch their strategy and how to portray the details on their site, people wouldn't be laughing at them as hard.
I'm all for taking risks and making mistakes, but without common sense the risks and mistakes can dig a deep hole that's difficult to get out of.
A little late to the party 'rella.
Ha
Hahahaha
HAHAHAHAHAHA
BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Bernie Madoff's grandkids?
I feel bad for their relatives.
This is gold.
!
[quote=Dunkin Donuts Banker]This is gold.
]
LOL Old man: (Not Listening) "Great!"
Stopped it there...
Why is Hank Paulson your prof. pic....
Elliot looks like a smug douche
Sometimes I can't tell if you're trolling or not bankerella...
Some other neat thoughts about Lumina: 1) They have $2 under management but the investment minimum is $100,000 2) The actual 2 owners of the fund aren't mentioned... ever 3) They never identify what asset classes they invest in 4) This has to be kind of common for douchebags... how'd they get so much media exposure? 5) Is this the best Wilmington can do?
UNC-W is a pretty underrated party/beach school. So it has that going for it...
Not a bad way for a few 21 year old virgins to gets some friend requests on facebook. I'd give them my pension
This is exactly what all macro investors are like. I've never met an intelligent (or successful) one in my life; these kids fit right in.
Buying undervalued businesses never goes out of style.
"No-name firms and individuals deliver inconsistent results and are sometimes shady. Bulge bracket firms deliver consistently shitty results and are consistently shady."
I laughed. Also, I've signed up for their newsletter each time I've seen this mentioned in a WSO thread... so I'm currently at three.
Interesting... I suppose I can dig the strategy. I would never give my money to a 21-yr old kid. They haven't been around the block. They haven't lost money and learned from it. They will end up making all the rookie mistakes, and my money won't be their guinea pig.
I just feel sorry for UNC...
Why is everyone hating on these guys?
They had the balls to go out and do something and try to make something of themselves.
Bill Ackman started a hedge fund straight out of Harvard Business School and people laughed at the idea. Pretty sure no one is laughing now.
Sure, they have $2 dollars in AUM but that's not to say it will be there forever. If they can show results from their own returns, they may have a better shot in getting more AUM.
WSO should support these cats because we're all typically young and at that age where we're trying to make it and stand on our own two feet.
It doesn't take balls to just ignorantly jump into something. I'd respect them a lot more if they had put their time in and had a atleast a couple years in the industry under their belt.
There's a big difference between what Ackman did and these kids. First he had work experience, and second, HBS MBA is in a different ball league from these guys.
I'd add that Ackman actually had a legitimate strategy when he started Gotham.
If this thread was serious bankerella automatically just lost all credibility
hey guys, let's all invest on what people tell us instead of stuff like track records or investor experience! makes a lot of sense bankerella! u fucking idiot
If you had any inkling that this thread might have been serious then you lose all credibility.
Just goes to show how little respect and faith I have in bankerella. some girl with almost 2k posts constantly trying to get attention from college and high school kids on an internet msg forum? Pathetic.
"Bulge bracket firms deliver consistently shitty results and are consistently shady" haha
Ackman didn't have experience.
“Everyone told me it was a really stupid idea to start my own hedge fund right out of business school,” says Ackman of the idea. “That’s how I knew that it was a good idea.” His father was opposed to the idea and encouraged him to get some more experience before starting his own fund. It didn’t matter what anyone said, Ackman was going to do it anyway. He was “daring to be great.”"
Ahuja, Maneet (2012-05-01). The Alpha Masters: Unlocking the Genius of the World's Top Hedge Funds (Kindle Locations 2708-2710). John Wiley and Sons. Kindle Edition.
Reading all the same books as a Stanford grad != being a Stanford grad. You know those people who guide you and give you insight? The professors? Yeah... kind of an important thing.
I recently graduated from a school in which one of our professors created Portfolio Theory. But Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan aren't recruiting at my school. We read the same books and have high quality professors. Only difference? One says on a piece of paper Harvard College. It's like me buying a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses and expecting I'm getting something different than a non-brand pair of sunglasses. In reality, it's the exact same thing beside the brand.
No, but going to HBS definitely gives you a ton of contacts who you can leverage. Also proves that youa re capable of SOMETHING atleast. What have these kids done to do that?
Ok to get things straight two reasons Ackman and these clowns are not in the same league
Please view my previous posts. You're incorrect.
You sir are either one of the three founders or an idiot. How can you honestly think this whole thing is laughable. I applaud and encourage innovation and entrepreneurship but I reserve the right to laugh at you if your knowledge and experience are both non existent. Regardless of the Ackman comparison, these three are clowns and I would fully support someone from a non name community college with a legit strategy and knowledge over these kids. College has nothing to do with it. It's their oblivious nature and lack of strategy that causes them to lose credibility
Ackman never wore a tie bar
Regarding #1: Easssyyyyyy there buddy. UNC-Greensboro is no slouch.
Madmoney...which one of the founders are you? This has to be a joke. Good luck fundraising outside the family.
Pretty hilarious that you're comparing these three to Ackman, because other than having some vague familiarity with finance, these kids have nothing in common with him. If you're proud of them for "daring to be great" or whatever other platitudes we have for people that do things unconventionally, that's one thing. But endorsing their "macro event driven" investment strategy based on zero historical data? Ackman had over $50 million 6 years after getting his Harvard MBA (after magna cum laude at Harvard); these kids have yet to graduate from a school no one outside its campus knows exists. Ackman took large stakes in Target, Borders, and a plethora of undervalued real estate; these dudes are hoping to get B's on their upcoming intermediate accounting classes, and replied "upper division finance, man" when asked what asset classes they favored. Ackman wasn't a virgin; ________.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwall_Capital
It boggles my mind how dumb, ignorant, and utterly oblivious they are. What really gets me is that they seem completely unaware as to how dumb they sound.
Might just be the best example of the Dunning-Kruger effect ever.
They should have just skipped the whole 'building a website and advertising it to the world' part. There's no shame in losing all your money to global macro events, but just leave us out of it.
It's settled...Bankerella is actually some dork at UNC Wilmington.
LMAO!! B'rella is the queen of trolling~
sorry Bankerella your late on this one. It was already posted a few days ago I think. Also the journalist already told those fools to take down his quote because its false advertisement and well advertising in general is illegal.
Bad day for a team picture. Unless they feel red better represents the firm on the board behind them...
I like your style, Bankerella.
Ackman actually started a hedge fund (and graduated from HBS).
These clowns hired a web guy. It is not a hedge fund.
Big fucking difference.
Lol. I was waiting for this thread. Sigh...
Honest/serious question ... is this just automatically front-paged because Bankerella is a contributing author/certified user/etc or did someone choose to put this as the front and center article of the site? And is the site coded to move high traffic threads to the top of the homepage or is at all at the discretion of the mods?
This has already been discussed and these guys have been bashed on multiple other threads... and sole purpose of this thread was to kick some college kids while they're are down. Its 20+ paragraphs carefully constructed to sarcastically tear these guys apart from all angles, nothing else.
I guessed they had it coming, but I really am curious about the reasoning behind making this thread front and center on the home page.
Next a few high school kids will start a fund
sweet thread!
anyway as a derivs guy the thing that struck me with the most confidence is that they'll be using 'high lambda options'. straight cash.
I watched the video interview and it was a facepalm after the other. This kids are just throwing words left and right, repeating something they read in a book. But actually, they are saying nothing. There's no an actual sentence that makes sense. That's what I find more funny. I bet they will be out in a couple of months. Probably blame it on finals.
I have the strong hypothesis that B'lla's actual panties-wetting-dream is to write for Dealbreaker O.o.
I watched the interview. So basically their "edge" is being ignorant of what the markets were like pre-2007? LOL
Pres0, I've accidentally given you herpe.. monkey shit. I meant to click silver banana lol
I don't normally bash people, but this story doesn't deserve a write-up like this. Shameless plug by bankerella, truly lost cred here
i just wasted 5mins reading this shit. i was duped.
Didn't read OP (sorry Bankerella, will do, I promise), but something puzzles me. Why should the average banker put money in a fund he knows that is going to invest in the same assets as anybody else and will usually underperform the S&P 500? I'd save the fees, take that 3-4 hours a week to do my research and pick a strategy of my own.
I think you should read the post; it's a pretty compelling case for investment.
Wait, are you talking about Lumina or just hedge funds as a whole?
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=184035599&pid=189179048&authTyp…
stringing words together is hard
Oh sweet Jesus why... this is so painfully funny.
i live in wilmington and i can assure you these guys are brown-nosing wannabe yuppies. and the local media is salivating over them becuase all wilmington has are restaurants and grocery stores.
i live in wilmington and i can assure you these guys are brown-nosing wannabe yuppies. and the local media is salivating over them becuase all wilmington has are restaurants and grocery stores.
Wow... the link to the facebook page gets it over the line for me. Urgh.
Update: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/01/04/3764921/charlotte-student-l…
[quote=phcap]Update: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/01/04/3764921/charlotte-student-l…]
"The company serves a range of high net-worth individuals around the world, primarily in the U.S. and Europe, he said."
...
"It started with two investors in August 2011, and now has five, Carol said."
Mr. Carol still has a flair for hyperbole.
Any update on their 2013 returns?
googled these guys (zach and elliot), they've moved to dubai
http://www.difc.ae/dalma-capital-management-limited
their domain name is for sale. might throw in a bid.
Think they'll get to sell it at $2,695? Is that the last bid, or their price?
Amazing all three are still together in Dubai. This is going to be a god damn movie.
Finance is sales and these guys are salesmen, at least with cutco you get a pair of knives..
Even more important than knowledge, running a successful professional services firm in finance, law, or consulting means you have relationships. Ackman not only is the son of an already successful and connected businessman, but he went to HBS where he probably met many more well connected and well to do people like himself.
In my experience, Partners are not Partners because they are smarter than the analysts, but because they know people and they consistently create situations that create leverage for the firm and business relationships with clients, media, or peers in the same or related industry.
If you are so clueless about what to do with your money you rather give it to a bunch of clueless college kids with 0 credibility or connections in any industry or public sphere, you're a sucker. These guys do not care about you, do not care about your money, they want to be like the big hedge fund guys on tv and you're the sucker helping them out.
No thank you, I rather invest in blunts and if I have any money left over, I rather give it to the Mexican guy who owns the corner deli on my block who at least has a real business with proven profitability and steady revenue stream.
I really don't think they are actually in Dubai. I remember seeing a few filings a while back when I saw they were at Dalma and there was some weird securities transfers.
It lists an address in Charlotte for Dalma in the filing below. Also, the Dalma domain is registered to one of the Lumina guys. Who knows...
http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1607219/000114036114018746/xsl…
http://www.whois.net/whois/dalmacapital.com
Somehow these recent college grads have 7+ years of investment management experience.
http://dalmacapital.com/management
Looks like their "Global Headquarters" is a PO box in Dubai.
So what they are saying is that "we buy stuff we read about in the news, and try to sell it for more money"
http://dalmacapital.com/about_us
They will never be unemployed....? at least..?
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