ass

If I said yes or no to your question would that really change anything? Think about what you were doing five years ago and how different it is than now. You all are too smart for your own good.

Extremely successful? Sophomores? Extremely?...

Once you're MD

Come on guys, we've all been there... don't be too hard on him. The working world sorts out our perspective of our abilities and accomplishments pretty quickly. OP, I would recommend reading Malcome Gladwell's "Outliers"; it helped me understand that intelligence wasn't as big of a factor in success as I thought it was. If you think you're awesome just because you got into Harvard and JPM, you're setting yourself up for failure. You also need a lot of hard work and luck to be successful in what you want to do.

To answer your question, the right time is when you find and prove through practice a scaleable strategy that generates consistent returns, and have the ability (read: contacts) to sell. Duh. You'll be taken seriously as soon as you have the track record. I think what you really should be asking/what you mean to be asking is at which point in your life will the combination of risks and opportunity costs be the lowest. To get to this point in life, I would do the following:

1. Finish college with as little debt as possible, move back in with your parents if you can or share a cheap apartment, and pay off your college debt before doing anything else. I'm assuming you don't have any credit card or other debt - if you do, pay it off. (Lowers risk)
2. Max out the tax benefits of a retirement account via firm contributions/Roth IRA. (Lowers monetary opportunity cost and risk)
3. Save at least 6 months' worth of expenses, preferably 12. Your ability to keep it going ends when this fund does, so don't skimp. (Lowers risk)
4. If you plan to be in an area where you will buy your own car and house, pay it all off. If you're in NYC, include transportation and rent expenses in (3) above. (Lowers risk)
5. Don't get married yet. (Lowers emotional opportunity cost and risk)

At this point, you will have put yourself in the perfect position. You will have minimized your living expenses, minimized your opportunity costs, and minimized your commitments and responsibilities. Of course, you don't have to do all this before you venture out; maybe the opportunity comes up before that. If you have the knowledge and contacts you need, go for it. Good for you for being ambitious.

As long as you can put up strong performance numbers you can raise assets whenever. Ken Griffin started his fund when he was your age. The founders of the hedge fund I work for started it when they were my age (26), and others don't start funds until they're in their 40's or later. I'd just focus on beating the market consistently with less volatility - it's easier said than done. Also, if you have strategies, and you are looking for seed money, PM me - seriously. We're always on the lookout for new talent to possibly seed.

Instead of asking silly questions, you should do one of the following: either start a fund right now out of your dorm room, like Ken Griffin; or do the best you can in school, go work for JPM/GS/MS and then see if you still wanna be a big swingin' fund manager after a stint on the sell side.

It's actually very rare to start a fund from S&T. A sell-side trader whose pnl comes from discretionary trading is very uncommon. (Usually, most of the pnl is commission dollars.)

http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article.aspx?articleID=2361672

If you've decided on pursuing fund management, forget about S&T, especially in this era. Being a STEM major at a target, it would be beneficial to at least spend a few internships on the buyside doing quant research. From then on you can decide if you want to continue on the buyside or launch you own fund. Above all, keep your ego in check - both life and markets can humble you very quickly.