Couple of questions about the industry?
I picked up trading 2 years ago. 2011 sucked. I returned 3%. Last year I returned 21%, most of those gains came from a strategy I started using towards the end of the year. I am up 23% YTD. That's 18 days. I've made tons of portfolios with paper trades and returned over 100% over the course of the last year. I think paper trades are useless. It's very easy to double down when you are at a 40% loss on your initial "investment" on a paper trade.
People are lending me money to trade and I in return provide them with interest, and I keep the rest of the money. I know this is not entirely legal. I'm literally running the most beat-ass, stupid, amateur as balls hedge fund. But I know for a fact, and so do all of you that my 21% return for 2012 is not beat-ass, stupid, or amateur.
In other words, for every 1000 dollars I borrow, I owe the lender 100 bucks, 10%, and I have already made 230 bucks off of every 1000 bucks in my account. I owe them that money on January 1st 2014. It is January 18th 2013. I know this is not legal and that is the point of this article. But damn is it a good feeling. I feel like that Rothschild dude during the Napoleonic wars bro. I love the Wall Street Journal pictures of those dudes on the floor holding their heads, because some of the money they lost went into my account. I win.
I know wall street isn't that simple, but I mean come on... I'm good. I'm not better than the best, but I am better than a lot of people in really fancy cars calling themselves professionals. I am shorting bonds and playing volatility, I am making momentum trades, I've made 48% returns in a day, 93% returns inside of a week. I don't care about those because they were single positions and they might as well be called luck. But my overall performance month by month and over the past year has been excellent. There are people on this website with jobs in trading and sales who cannot do what I do, and they went to college to learn to do it. Period.
I am confused by having professionals (35 year old oxford MBA grad M&A director, among others) tell me its not all about the returns, when the bottom line is I would have made them a helluva lot more money if they left their money with me vs some of the best hedge funds run by the brightest people out there.
Now here is the point... How can I do what I am doing... borrowing money, and use it for leverage on my own investments legally? What licenses would I need? Series 7, etc? And why is it I need to work for some giant bank to get these?
What licenses would I need to take the money from "investors" as opposed to "lenders" meaning that they share my profits and losses?
And here is the kicker... am I good enough to get a job on the street? at a trading desk, by job I mean pay for my metro card! I can still manage to run my own fund and I am lucky enough to have a family to support me while I am trying to make things happen but working on wall street to me means that I can learn how the pros do it (even though I have spoken to plenty of kids with jobs on the street, provided via daddy and or mommy, and or an ivy bumper sticker, and they don't know what ETF stands for, or what an arbitrageur is, let alone how the DJIA is weighted.
I am a history major (blehhh, i know) and I go to a CUNY school (ewww, I know) and I have a 3.6 GPA (??)
Is being a lacrosse bro and frat king at a private school more important than a decent GPA, skills with money, and ambition?
Because those seem to be the only kids with the jobs I think would be interesting... And at the end of the day... they skimp on their 401K so I can manage their money.
This has to be the most retarded post I have ever read in my life.
In before everything ridiculous happens
you are such a boss
If you don't want to post the answers to the questions I asked you can PM me. Seriously, just what do I have to do to keep doing what I is be doing and have the tax man stop whining? Obviously, if any of you chill chad bros wanna show me how to play LAX that would be dope as well.
hi, can you manage my money?
Managing a thousand dollars is worlds apart from managing a million dollars. And managing a million dollars is worlds apart from managing a billion dollars.
You're nothing special - many people make ~100% annual return on their investment accounts. For now buckle down, focus on your studies, and network. Being genuinely excited about markets will help you do well through the recruitment process.
F. Ro Jo: I am assuming you are joking. But, in case you aren't, and since I would be a terrible person to ignore your rather odd request, I have no idea who you are, so, of course not. Maybe if someone tells me what sort of magic trick I would need to pull off to do this legally. I don't want to start a hedge fund, but a couple of thousand bucks a year legally doesnt hurt, I don't care how amateur or "retarded" anyone thinks it is. It would be nice to be able to legally take people's money, give it back and keep the earnings, or charge a fee, whatever you guys know what I am talking about.
7xEBITDA: THANKS! Speaking of networking, my biggest problem is I have no idea where to meet people like myself, and obviously people who are way better than myself at what I do, and of course, professionals...
Do you, or do you know anybody here that make those sort of returns, preferably better? A,
and B If no, where can I find them? I know tons of people can do what I do, so I am nothing special but most people can't right, I mean that's what mutual funds and the like are for, people who have no time and or have no idea what the hell is going on? Am I missing something here?
and... C what exactly about the management of a 7 or 8 figure account is different from a 5 or 6 figure one? Like seriously, I have no idea how that works. I don't know anyone who does what I do,let alone with millions and billions of dollars, which may account for the fact that I think I am doing something amazing haha. Do you dump in millions into a trading account and do the same thing, or get a real broker, maybe split capital into different securities, I understand that at a billion dollar level the game is entirely different, and that dumping hundreds of millions into ETFs and buying and selling options people will sniff you out and hand you your dick for breakfast... but a million is nothing. At the end of the day isn't everybody from Cohen and Paulson down to the guys with 1000 bucks just scanning for opportunities and grabbing them? Isn't the ability to ignore the zeroes the point? Just a number, not a car, nor a house, or a 20% stake in a petroleum distillation conglomerate?
I know nothing, if I sound full of it it's because you don't know what sort of penny stock gambling idiots I am surrounded by. And does anyone know the answers to the license question? That's sorta why I came here, Google is a mess. The whole job thing is not that important, I like what I do now. Friends and family keep telling me to look into it. I started messing with the stock market so I could work less at my part time job.
Like seriously, I talk to the kids in my economics classes, the ones getting A's, and they just get all technical, earnings, reports bla bla bla then they tell me they haven't made any money. I am starting an investment club at school but I have a feeling its going to be kids flipping out about how much they lost with facebook and apple, and how much they cant wait for the twitter IPO.
It's good to hear you're genuinely interested in the industry - WSO is a rough crowd so forgive the sarcasm.
The best people to network with are, obviously, professionals. Reach out to alumni in hedge funds and investment banks (sales and trading, investment management, etc.) and be genuine - talk about your love for trading and how you want to get involved. There are tons of cold-emailing guides online, just take a look for some general etiquette and start networking.
Great way to find professionals is through LinkedIn - go to advanced people search, fill out your school name and company name and it'll give you a solid list of results. You'll need to manipulate the results for them to be useful (find out full name by Googling them and find out email by finding out the firm's email format, etc.) but it's a tremendously effective way to find people.
You can't ignore the zeros after a point because, once you start making those trades, you'll start moving the market in which you're investing. That'll cancel out any returns you'll potentially gain from those investments. That's why top hedge fund managers make 20% in a good year, and are consistent about it. They diversify their investments and still make stable income - extremely tough to do.
PM me if you want some specific insights. I'm really tired lol so forgive me if some of the above doesn't make sense.
7xEBITDA... Thanks a lot for all of your advice.
But does anyone know what exactly you would need to invest money legally for people? I know it sounds stupid, but I just want to be within in the bounds of the law when investing other people's money?
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