Does career experience I want exist?

Hi fellow monkeys,

I am currently investigating spending part of my career in the financial world. I have very good idea of the experience I want to have/my ideal job. Searching though many of the forums on this website, and researching several potential firms, has given me lots of information and insight about potential career paths. I think only someone who knows, has seen, and has really experienced the financial industry can give me a good idea of if what I am looking for is possible. I thus would really appreciate any insights and advice I get. If when reading this it becomes apparent I should be asking this question in one of the other forums please let me know.

If I were to enter the financial world this is the experience I would want to have: I want to be given a set amount of money to invest on behalf of a firm. I can invest the money as I see fit to grow it for the firm and I get a cut of the profits. I would like to have a base salary but what is important to me is getting a cut of the profits. I want the flexibility of an independent trader but do not want to spend the day day-trading. In other words, I would love to operate like a small personal hedge fund for a firm.

Sitting in front of a screen making the lightning fast trading decisions does not appeal to me and is not part of the experience I want to have. I am happy to do some algorithmic trading but would not want to do that full time either. I really want to be able to talk to insightful people who want to understand how the world works in terms of economics, finance, mathematics, and want to find the best strategies that work.

I am 25, have a bachelors in Aerospace Engineering, and currently work as a software/algorithm developer in the research and development section of a major US defense firm. I am happy to get a masters or even a PhD in computational finance. I find the topic and math enjoyable and would help me as an engineer even until I get to that point.

I am from the west coast and ideally want to live as far west as possible. I have looked into trade firms such as T3 and Maverick trading, but they seem very sketchy to me and just want your start up fees. On the other hand, I have looked at firms like Jane Street and Trillium but those firms are almost exclusively in New York.

In sum: is it possible to get this experience in the financial industry as close to the west coast as possible? Does it as a career/job exist? If so, does it just exist in New York or Chicago? Does it only exist for people who have long, successful track records in respected wall street firms?

I appreciate your help :)