Starting an investment business

[Lord-Barrington]



streak is now at 14, total yield at 15.3%
Things are starting to get rough though, business-wise. It's gonna take at least 20,000 to get legally organized as a hedge fund, and then we have to hire independent administrators, compliance consultants, and accountants.
We've been talking to a bunch of Fund of Funds and Seeder Funds and while I do think it's possible for us to go that route at some point, having no infrastructure is a definite mark against us as far as these places are concerned. So now we have to do another round of small/mid dollar fundraising to secure our start-up costs, so that we can raise large-dollar investors for actual AUM.
Starting a business is hard! In retrospect I was definitely a bit naive about how easy this would be, due to the positive feedback we were getting and the big game a lot of people were talking who all ended up flaking out. Still, I think we're capable of it and that we want to go the start-up route. We're gonna keep slogging through until we get all our legal and organizational ducks in a row, and then hopefully we'll get that crucial anchor investor!
I'm just realizing that this is going to be slower and harder than I thought. I feel a little stupid and gullible in retrospect, but we're as determined as ever to make this happen. Hopefully someday in the not-too-distant future all you high net worth SFers will be able to invest with Acale Capital Management's flagship hedge fund.

You had several strikes against you from the beginning, I imagine, but the biggest problem is that hedge funds are cold as ice right now. Big funds have been absolutely savaged and people are wary of these investment vehicles (and rightfully so, in my opinion).

 

[NameBack]



You had several strikes against you from the beginning, I imagine, but the biggest problem is that hedge funds are cold as ice right now. Big funds have been absolutely savaged and people are wary of these investment vehicles (and rightfully so, in my opinion).

Yeah, the failure of the Paulsons of the world is a black eye on the entire industry right now. 2011 is the second worst year for hedge funds on record. Average return was -5%, I believe.

 

[NameBack]

Looks like we might have someone willing to finance our start-up costs ($40,000-$80,000, depending on certain quotes and so forth) for a relatively small portion of equity.

The nice thing about this is that it allows us to set up an infrastructure plan -- get squared away with all the service providers we'll need so that we can tell prospective investors who will be providing our back office operations and what best practices we will be employing, etc. Having a compliance and infrastructure plan should be especially helpful in recruiting funds from Fund of Funds and Seeders.

Have a feeling our short position that we opened on Friday will be the one to end our streak.

 

[CYstyle]



Looks like we might have someone willing to finance our start-up costs ($40,000-$80,000, depending on certain quotes and so forth) for a relatively small portion of equity.
The nice thing about this is that it allows us to set up an infrastructure plan -- get squared away with all the service providers we'll need so that we can tell prospective investors who will be providing our back office operations and what best practices we will be employing, etc. Having a compliance and infrastructure plan should be especially helpful in recruiting funds from Fund of Funds and Seeders.
Have a feeling our short position that we opened on Friday will be the one to end our streak.

i think tomorrow will be a down day, so you'll streak continues at least i think

 

[Nereis]

Nameback, have you considered approaching several larger firms that may be sitting on significant cash positions? A friend I have working at a hedge fund said that rather than attracting the swinging dicks, they targeted retail banks for their seed funds. It's unconventional but it may work pending increasing regulation and the shutdown of inhouse trading desks.

 

[NameBack]



Nameback, have you considered approaching several larger firms that may be sitting on significant cash positions? A friend I have working at a hedge fund said that rather than attracting the swinging dicks, they targeted retail banks for their seed funds. It's unconventional but it may work pending increasing regulation and the shutdown of inhouse trading desks.

Hadn't thought about that, no. Interesting idea.

 

[bringusingoodale]

So how are you guys planning to make money off the upcoming Facebook IPO?

 

[CYstyle]



So how are you guys planning to make money off the upcoming Facebook IPO?

For me at least, wait for some of the volatility to go away, then find some shares to short it till it dies.

 

[bringusingoodale]

For me at least, wait for some of the volatility to go away, then find some shares to short it till it dies.

Doesn't this all happen within 24 hours of the IPO?

 

[NameBack]



So how are you guys planning to make money off the upcoming Facebook IPO?

No plans. IPOs don't really figure into the model since we need an equity's history to train the algorithms on. No history = no model.

Today was a kickass day for us, though. Cleared 1.8%

Our awesome streak died yesterday, sadly. We made it to 14 positions, 5 weeks of uninterrupted profit. And our losing position yesterday only lost about 0.15%

So, overall we're up about 17% now and things continue to look good. Woulda been awesome if the streak had continued though.

 

[legorogel]

hows it going?

 

[Sir Humphrey Appleby]

Well?

 

[wootx]

Arrested on fraud?

 

[gettoasty]

You may try speaking with someone over at WBI regarding your regression methods. They specialize, in their back office, something similar

 

[NameBack]

Been a while since I've ventured out of DT -- forgot about this thread!

Anyway, we're off our peak a bit -- down to about 14%, so nothing catastrophic. Everything continuing as normal, still pursuing leads for anchor investors.