Haven’t posted in awhile, but I’m ready to make the break and give my fund a shot. First step is to put up a track record. About a month into doing it and so far, so good. Strategy right now event-driven, primarily merger arb in this environment since spreads are so high and so much money has been pulled out of the strategy. Tight risk tolerances and avoid deals that might break like the plague. I figure if you can put up a good number in this environment, you can put up a good number in any environment. Where there’s chaos, there’s opportunity. I’d really like a partner moving forward; if anyone’s interested, I’d love to talk.
I believe Fortress was conceived in a similar manner.
emarkhans Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Haven’t posted in awhile, but I’m ready to make > the break and give my fund a shot. First step is > to put up a track record. About a month into > doing it and so far, so good. Strategy right now > event-driven, primarily merger arb in this > environment since spreads are so high and so much > money has been pulled out of the strategy. Tight > risk tolerances and avoid deals that might break > like the plague. I figure if you can put up a > good number in this environment, you can put up a > good number in any environment. Where there’s > chaos, there’s opportunity. I’d really like a > partner moving forward; if anyone’s interested, > I’d love to talk. Where do you operate? Are you a 1 man shop right now?
Manhattan. Yes.
What’s the name of your shop and how much AUM?
Got some ideas on the name but haven’t finalized it. Managing only my own and wife’s money now; I’m not even going to formally ask people for $$, even friends and family unless I can show them a record. My strategy involves only publicly traded equities (and options to hedge if necessary), so the numbers really don’t change if you add two or three zeros to the AUM (other than investments of my size won’t move the market themselves, but you can adjust the record for that). Naturally, I’ve told plenty of people about the idea without actually asking them for $$. I was in a lot of meetings with investors/potential investors at my old shop so I have some experience/contacts there. I know they like the SEC and the CFA, two names I have. Legal docs are all ready to go.
so you are running 6 figures then. I’m not trying to be a d!ck, as you can make money in any sized fund (well, you theoretically can make money), but I am guessing you are pretty teeny, true?
Yes, it’s six figures. Very little would really be different if it were eight, though, other than position sizes would have two more zeros. It could easily be seven in a few weeks. It’s a start-up enterprise.
best of luck to you man! Definitely a tough world out there but sometimes that is when fortunes are made…hopefully you find people that will toss money with you as they figure nothing worse can happen than what already is (thats not a slam on you). Anyway, keep us up to speed, very interesting venture
Best of Luck! Start-up costs have got to be killing you though…can easily run 60k or more.
What kind of expertiese are you looking for in a partner? analysis, sales, legal, etc.
bigwilly Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Best of Luck! Start-up costs have got to be > killing you though…can easily run 60k or more. Not really. The vast majority of them are legal fees. I’m a lawyer. Legal dox were “free.” LLC fees in Delaware are miniscule. Costs a little more to incorporate/service an offshore entity, but I don’t need it yet.
How long into the process are you? I can tell you from experience the initial start up phase can be a lot longer than expected and unless you have a sound source of backing very difficult.
sailor Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > How long into the process are you? I can tell you > from experience the initial start up phase can be > a lot longer than expected and unless you have a > sound source of backing very difficult. Probably two years of thinking through the strategy I want, 6-9 months into doing legal-type start up stuff, less than a month into investing. I guess I’d add the time studying for and taking the Dec 06, June 07, and June 08 CFA exams. What was your experience, if you don’t mind sharing?
Started at the fund in January, we didn’t start trading till July during that time everything was expense with the staff growing from 5 to 15+ people while preparing the infrastructure and tuning the first strategy. I would say we are still very much in start-up phase.
sailor Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Started at the fund in January, we didn’t start > trading till July during that time everything was > expense with the staff growing from 5 to 15+ > people while preparing the infrastructure and > tuning the first strategy. I would say we are > still very much in start-up phase. Interesting. Part of my strategy study was how many people would be necessary to get going and I like the fact that it won’t be very many. I assume your ringleader has a track record.
Well if you do your own Legal then that’s different…but are you accruing for audit fees? Don’t know how much they would be on that small of a fund or if you are even going to audit the books…
Sailor what fund are you with? AUM?
bigwilly Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Well if you do your own Legal then that’s > different…but are you accruing for audit fees? > Don’t know how much they would be on that small of > a fund or if you are even going to audit the > books… That will be part of it.
ustcer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What kind of expertiese are you looking for in a > partner? analysis, sales, legal, etc. I’d say mostly analysis and operations, but it’s flexible.