This thread has a unique purpose that I don't believe has ever been covered before on these boards. 'Bud Foxing' is the process of trying to attract the attention of a much bigger, far more established money manager than yourself ('the Gekko'). If pulled off successfully, you end up with a valuable industry contact who takes you and your trading abilities seriously- possibly even seriously enough to work together to some extent going forward. I have a measure of experience on both ends of this equation, so I'll start the thread by laying out a few 'Bud Foxing' do's and don'ts: -------- Do: *Start out by offering something the Gekko is likely to appreciate, such as a very high conviction market call which you are almost certain will act as you predict. *Understand how the Gekko thinks, and act accordingly. Personalize, customize and tailor your 'Bud Foxing' to his unique desires and values. Does he favor a certain brand of embargoed Cuban cigars? Is he the kind of guy who'd be interested in illegal inside info on Bluestar Airlines? Figure out what the most valuable thing is that you have to offer, and present your gift. *Give him plenty of space. Don't smother the Gekko! Don't: *Act entitled. *Be an idiot. *Whine. *Bombard the Gekko with multiple low-value PM's/emails. *Ask for anything in return- at least not for a while. Ideally, some type of collaboration between the two of you will be <b>his</b> idea at some point. *Try to milk information about his methods. Again, you want your payoff to be something he offers voluntarily, without direct prompting on your part. -------- So... what else? I'm sure I haven't covered even half the key points here, so feel free to jump in if you have anything to add...
go to Harvard, get wall street job for 250k....trade OTM.....get bonus of 5 million at 23 years old.....do this for five-years....start fund, trade OTM....do this for 2 years.... consider retiring before 35... now this is an elite trader!!!! results don't matter!!!! other people will pay you bank!!!!! and make sure you get 2% off the top with them not being able to take their money out for 2 years.
Great and very relevant thread."Bud Foxing"-- GENIUS!!!! I got my start interviewing a bunch of hedge fund managers for yahoo finance------ I hit it off with several of them, namely an ex head trader for is@sy engl2nder who was just starting his own fund--- he taught me the biz from the ground up-- gave me a platform, utilized my skills and introduced me to the movers and shakers in the business. Secondly, I met another hedge fund manager who was purely fundamentally dirven, he knew nothing about TA--- he hired me to teach him TA and provided a nice portion of his portfolio to trade--- I was down 2% after 6 months and simutaneously our big investor pulled his funds for reasons unrelated---- the fund crashed and burned after we lost the majority of the funds due to early withdraw... the starter of this thread introduced me to another famous hedgee in CT and his group of investors. Meeting the HNW investors and connecting them with interesting ideas turned out out to be my niche in the business....... use your strengths Remember, you need to add value, you need to KNOW things they don't know, be able to give them the PR they need, know people they don't know---- ADDING value is the key--- be humble and don't expect anything in return. It can change your life. surf
Good post, Surf! Starting some kind of relationship with an established trader is how many get their start. My biggest lucky break ever came in 1996, when I was hired to become the first clerk ever to a trader who went on to become #1 in the world at our particular niche. More Do's and Don'ts: Before initiating your Bud Fox process, you want to make sure you have the right Gekko in mind to target in the first place. Ideally, he'll be someone local. Also, you probably want to make sure he's <b>not</b> a highly conventional 'standard established procedure', hard-J (Myers-Briggs term) kind of guy. Someone that straight-laced likely has a stick up his ass towards those who bypass the 'proper established hiring procedures'. If your intended Gekko posts on ET, great! But if you're trying to establish a track record of solid trades in real time, you probably don't want to message him each one individually. I highly doubt he wants a PM box full of your paper trades (even if they're pretty good), so start a real-time trading journal instead. If you don't want your calls made public, you can always hide it in some unseen corner of the net, or use password protection.
I would stay away from messaging your gecko with every trade. He is interested in your strategy and thought process rather than actual trades IMHO. Rearden is 100% when he says find Someone outside the norm--- that's why I gravitated toward unusual niche strategies that are capacity constrained as this weeds out the big players but is attractive to jaded hedge fund investors. Frankly, I am surprised at the lack of interest in this thread--- real info on how to succeed but TA fantasy threads on super traders and green aphids or something get tons of hits I guess real life info has limited interest when competing against chart reading fantasy.
This thread still has potential. Anyone have any real life stories to tell about how you managed to 'bag the elephant'? Anyone here come up with some super creative way to grab a Gekko's attention? Whether it worked out or flopped miserably, there's no need to be shy...