Making 100%-200% return a year from trading

We all heard the anecdote of making a 200% annual return if you are trading on a small capital(25K-500K), given that you are not a market mover and have more flexibility to move your capital by not worrying about Liquidity.

Hedge fund professionals, do you think that this is feasible?

8 Comments
 

Is it feasible to project this? No… who would be the sucker contributing the alpha dollars so consistently? 

 

In general, with smaller capital, doable. But not sure if this is a suitable approach in hedge funds, particularly MM. In other words, if there are a lot of constraints and risk limit around your book, very unlikely to achieve such results. 

 

It was a huge pet peeve of mine hearing kids in college talk about their 100%+ returns. They would always brag how investing is so easy and so forth yet all they invested was $200. Now they all have mediocre jobs. Don't be one of them. 

Numbers like that are totally unrealistic unless you were to run insane risk which obviously will only go well for a short time period. Also with that small capital you're not even considering leverage or hedging strategies. 

 
Most Helpful

Nihil eum aliquam ut pariatur voluptatem tempora explicabo. Est veniam error et occaecati asperiores laudantium. Sit aliquid eum eos molestiae modi in qui. Hic voluptatum sit et provident. Autem quia fugiat dolorem nemo.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Point72 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.1%
  • AQR Capital Management 97.1%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.1%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Magnetar Capital 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.0%
  • Blackstone Group 97.0%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.0%
  • Millennium Partners 95.0%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Hedge Fund

  • AQR Capital Management 99.0%
  • Point72 98.1%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.1%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.2%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.2%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Portfolio Manager (9) $1,648
  • Vice President (27) $464
  • Director/MD (12) $423
  • NA (9) $320
  • Engineer/Quant (86) $288
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (26) $284
  • Manager (4) $282
  • 2nd Year Associate (32) $253
  • 1st Year Associate (77) $191
  • Analysts (242) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (29) $145
  • Junior Trader (5) $102
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (282) $96
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”