How to find partners for a startup fund

Hi everyone, I wanted to know how to find partners that have previous fund experience. I am looking to get partners for a commodity futures fund that I am building. I am looking to get someone with trading experience, I have already formed the entity. Registered with NFA. Setup emails and domains. Have talked to vendor and service providers. Have contacts with fund seeders. Also have opened brokerage account. I am looking to do discretionary trading mostly with low frequency algo. All run of the mill, not trying to reinvent the wheel. Also I am high school grad myself and quite young. Have been trading self account for quite a while now.

PS: Try to motivate rather than otherwise.

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I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 
"HFT" Sir, Would you like to elaborate your point?

For starters, what insight do you think you have into the futures market that will give you an edge over other participants?

I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 

Jokes apart, I am going to be straight up, it's an interesting question that you asked. I mean the sole reason to start a fund is to make money for the investors and to do that we need a consistent edge. I mean in regards to the futures market, I have insight as I have gained certification from various futures exchanges. So I know the strategies like arbitrage and calendar spreads. But the type of strategy I look to deploy in this particular fund would be directional. Just pure algo trading, market timing strategies on 10-year notes, have ran extensive back-test on them for the strategies, no curve-fitting. And it has proven to provide a great edge in the long run. Also not to be boastful, but I can quickly spot chart patterns and have a high accuracy in intraday trading with good RR. So yeah, Other than that the main emphasis will be on risk adjusted returns and minimal drawdown by using low leverage.

I like to keep things simple as the end goal is to make returns. In the simplest and safest way possible. You gotta stay in the game to win it.

 
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"HFT" Just pure algo trading, market timing strategies on 10-year notes, have ran extensive back-test on them for the strategies, no curve-fitting. And it has proven to provide a great edge in the long run.
Have you actually traded these strategies live or these are back-test only? What types of Sharpe ratios and pnl/trade do you have? What is the average turn-over? What is the source of your alpha (alternative data? risk premium? momentum?)? If this is a "public" edge, what is your advantage over other market participants? What do you think is you maximum capacity? Not trying to discourage you, but these are all valid questions.
"HFT" Also not to be boastful, but I can quickly spot chart patterns and have a high accuracy in intraday trading with good RR.
Yeah, you are being boastful. I have been doing this for just about 20 years and I've yet to see a single person that had a consistent call on market in the medium term. There used to be a fair number of scalpers but the advent of HF market makers have killed that particular breed of traders.
I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 

Under 20, dropped out to trade after junior year in ‘15 and graduated this year.

 

E-Slavery is an option. There are websites like oDesk and eLance that pimp out talented Indian developers for $2 an hour. Good skill set, dirt cheap, and no equity position. If you're a real dick, you can even insist that they use a live webcam with screen shots every 15 seconds while they're working on your project so you can make sure they're not screwing off and padding the hours.

 
Edmundo BravermanE-Slavery is an option. There are websites like oDesk and eLance that pimp out talented Indian developers for $2 an hour. Good skill set, dirt cheap, and no equity position. If you're a real dick, you can even insist that they use a live webcam with screen shots every 15 seconds while they're working on your project so you can make sure they're not screwing off and padding the hours.

All ready tried those guys, and believe me, they charge a hell of a lot more than $2/hour.

 
Edmundo BravermanE-Slavery is an option. There are websites like oDesk and eLance that pimp out talented Indian developers for $2 an hour. Good skill set, dirt cheap, and no equity position. If you're a real dick, you can even insist that they use a live webcam with screen shots every 15 seconds while they're working on your project so you can make sure they're not screwing off and padding the hours.
I had great luck on Elance for a few side ventures. Don't expect brilliance, but they can crank out most basic/intermediate programming tasks. The key is to document extremely well - be ridiculously detailed, they will literally not do a single step you don't ask them to do. But if you put in the time to develop good requirements, you can get good work done for far cheaper than you can in the states.
- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

You need a competent CTO. So none of your friends were CS or EE or ridiculous engineering grads? Hmm i have the opposite problem where none of mine are business savvy, and im stuck in the middle as an engineer trying to be a business man because im sick and tired of starup CEOs not having a darn clue on what the heck they are trying to make, send it off to India or South Africa and receive a pile of garbage code that doesnt do what they wanted since of course they have no idea about software development and what they actually required.

I have no idea how a startup can be successful if the founders a mix of financial, marketing and IT do not sit in one room and constantly brainstorm and implement ideas that effect the entire business.

IE: CS EE ME Engineer open to web and engineering startups

 

I would say find some people within your friend circle who are business minded and hardworking. I started my own company with a good friend of mine a few months back and it's been workng great so far. Just make sure to keep everyone accountable. While some people avoid working with close friends I'd say it can be a good decision if implemented well as they are the most trustworthy typically having known you for awhile.

 

depends on if you want full time/ft partners or part time / pt partners

ft partners would be very expensive and you would have to give up a substantial percentage of the company

part time, you would really be able to pay them like consultants and give up much less of the company

beware, this can be tricky

 

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