Seeking words of advice from people more knowledgeable than myself.

Hi.

I just found this forum, and this is my first post - so if, for whatever reason, I'm a cunt for posting this, just let me know and I'll delete it. Anyway, I'm gonna try to avoid the spergy 'iM lOoKiNg FoR a MeNtOr' vibe that a lot of these posts have - even though that's essentially what this post is.

First off, a bit of background. Dropped out of Economics at LSE after 3 years (yes I'm this dumb) to start a company developing CRM software tailored to car dealerships. Sold the company for low 6 figures (orders of magnitude more than I ever spent building the company) to a larger competitor a year later, used the money to trade CFDs and travel around the world spending money as quickly as I made it. Eventually met the love of my life and moved to Canada with her. Basically spent all my cheese at this point, not gonna lie - years of luxury travel and childishness, and now Canadian immigration fees and property prices, all did a number on my 6 figure account. Currently got like 50k to my name. I'm 25, so it's by no means terminal and I'm likely better off than most people my age, but it does mean I have to consider growing the fuck up somewhat because I don't have the margin to trade sketchy derivatives like a child anymore.

I'm taking the CSC and PDO courses, but I am aware that really isn't gonna make a difference to how employable I am - no formal degree and a total absence of work history for the last few years isn't a great look for entry into high finance. Problem is, I don't really wanna work outside of finance. I love it; I'd trade the markets for minimum wage, that's how much I enjoy this shit. So I've come to the conclusion that, obviously, my only option is to launch a hedge fund and force my way into the industry like a fat guy entering an already-occupied hot tub. Bear with me - I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I've actually thought it through to some degree.

On paper, I'm eligible for registration as a dealing representative of an exempt market dealer so long as I pass the aforementioned courses and have 50k, so that bit's fine provided I eat only ramen until I'm registered to preserve my 50k. Equally I've found some not-too-garbage companies to outsource all the middle and back office shit to, so I don't really have to worry there either. Strategy wise - the strategy's solid as a rock, I've traded it for years and if I hadn't continually pulled money out of the market to spend on bullshit, I'd be in a really good position. I kick myself for my stupidity sometimes, I really do. Anyway. Capital raising might pose an issue, but hey - I have a small minority of wealthier friends and relatives I can prospect, and I could sell sunglasses to the blind, so I'm not overly pessimistic about my ability to raise something like 10m in seed capital. Small dick numbers, I know, but we all start somewhere right? I might need to get hold of a startup loan to fund the first year of operation; no idea how that'll go until I actually try it later this year. Currently I'm just mashing keys writing business plans and making models in the hopes lenders will kinda ignore my shady background if the concept's solid and I demonstrate competence and potential.

Anyway, now you've hopefully had a laugh at my expense, I'll explain the actual point of telling you all of that. I'm looking for someone in Canada with experience in the Exempt Market specifically, that I can shoot the shit with and hopefully learn something from. I have people with whom I can discuss general economics or markets, or the generalities of launching and running a fund, but as a newcomer to Canada there's nobody in my network with any experience in this market specifically, so they're even more clueless than me when it comes to the specifics of launching and running a fund here. If there's anyone here who can offer their experience and knowledge to me in this capacity, I'd absolutely love the opportunity to talk to them for a few minutes.

I'm probably just gonna get roasted like the last guy who posted something like this, which is fair enough, but it's worth a try.