Jun 11, 2017

Great Return Bad Grades

So I'm currently a junior in college, I'm studying finance and a minor in economics. I played football from the second grade and loved everything about it. Until I switched my passion to Stock trading in the 10th grade, it's the same euphoric feeling to me as playing football. I started doing my research on the stock trading in general when I was a freshmen in high school. I would watch Mad Money and CNBC as much as I could, along with reading books by; Peter Lynch and Jim Cramer. I worked my ass off as a valet in high school to set aside some money to trade with, I put 8K in my IRA by the time I graduated. I was able to secure shares of Dave and Busters at its IPO price of $16 senior year. This was my first four bagger, and I was hooked. Now It's not all about the money, but you know what, it's a damn nice thing to have. I am trading mostly options on stocks and futures. I am currently running a small fund of around 150K and in two years have an annualized return of 85%. On the not so nice side of things my college GPA is sitting at a 2.6. If I can keep these kinds of returns up for the next two years, while boosting my GPA to a 3.0, Do I have a good chance at getting a job at a hedge fund or any type of fund in private equity? Or would I be better off running my own Hedge fund?

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chicandtoughness

Rank: Neanderthal
3,066

Jun 11, 2017 - 12:57am

Quality shitpost. I'm not sure whether an SB or MS would be more appropriate :(

Currently: future psychiatrist (med school =P) Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)

Seanathin

Rank: Senior Chimp
16

Jun 11, 2017 - 1:19am

Man I'm just trying to get some advice here, also SB?

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RobberBaron123

Rank: Senior Neanderthal
4,495

Jun 11, 2017 - 2:14am

Get the grades up, son. None of us WSOers know the circumstances of your return, but you could've literally scored a
homerun that made up the majority of the return. If you can push out several trades (hence not a lucky guess among a few) and still have those kinds of returns, that might suffice if you can show a multi-year track record.

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Seanathin

Rank: Senior Chimp
16

Jun 11, 2017 - 4:04pm

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. I will definitely work my ass off to improve my GPA. It's been a few big trades coupled with a bunch of small gainers.

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wso_user

Rank: Senior Gorilla
864

Jun 11, 2017 - 7:31am

lol is this a serious question?

no dude get your grades up and get into ib if want to work in PE. HF is still almost as pedigree focused so will unlikely as well.

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Seanathin

Rank: Senior Chimp
16

Jun 13, 2017 - 1:51am

Yeah of course it is... considering hedge funds returned an average of a sad 6% in 2016, yes it is a serious question... It's hard to believe that funds would rather see a kid with great grades in classes that have almost nothing to do with actual trading, than one who's actually successfully managed money...

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notadoctor500

Rank: Orangutan
293

Jun 13, 2017 - 12:56pm

getting massive returns for a few years with a couple thousand dollars is not as impressive as it may seem, there are entirely different dynamics at a large HF. They would rather have a kid who is well learned and hard working to be able to learn the amount they need to teach him to become a good investment associate.

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