I got an offer from a fund management company in UK, and their performance results look impressive giving aroun 80% annual return i.e thats what they gave in the year 2004 trading forex can that be true???, they say they are NFA regulated too? I doubt can this be possible? please let me know
my take is, you won't find anyone able to acheive those results. not saying it is not possible. you just won't find anyone. what kind of offer did you get? any where you need to either put up your own money or show them your trading system?
If they are registered with the CFTC and the NFA they have strict rules to follow about calculating and publishing returns. So it could be true. But the question is what did they do the years before? Maybe 2004 was a lucky shot. My best month ever in Forex was +42% and my best quarter ever was +90%. But at the end of the year returns were not so spectacular anymore. The problem was consistency. It took me years before i got it under control. So, how is their consistency?
Whether the return is before or after fees (what %?)? Maximum drawdown? Margin/ Equity ratio? Trading strategy/ style? Etc.
depends on their size. if they are three people, manage five million dollars and have three accounts running, they might have just showed you the best. real issue is what they want from you. do they have incentive to appear better than than they are? actually the situation is a little weird, a company with such a trading capability should "feel" like "i have to have to have to work there". if it feels different ... well in 9 out of 10 cases you will soon find good reason for your doubts.
Ask them their disclosure document. If you want to know what should be in it check this link: http://www.cta.visionlp.com/ctainfo.cfm?acftc=00000 Click on: ACE Investment Strategists Disclosure Document [Download .PDF] Here you see what they have to give you.
They offered me to put my own money and here are the performance results....they were doing this only from 2004 jan January 04' 20.67% 4 February 04' 47.27% 5 March 04' 53.37% TRADING RESULTS FOR THE PERIOD 6 April 04' 63.38% JANUARY 2004 TO END MARCH 2005. 7 May 04' 95.68% 8 June 04' 92.34% OUR FIGURES ARE AUDITED RESULTS 9 July 04' 89.89% AND OUR TRADING RECORDS ARE LOGGED 10 August 04' 88.86% WITH FSA, NFA AND CFTC COMPLIANT 11 September 04' 86.55% FIRMS. 12 October 04' 79.35% 13 November 04' 77.95% OUR HEAD TRADER MR ANDY DEMETRIADES 14 December 04' 75.85% IS AVALIABLE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS 15 January 05' 77.22% RELATING TO THESE FIGURES ON : 16 February 05' 78.06% TELEPHONE 44 208 906 2220 OR 44 7940 105 331. 17 March 05' 82.26% 18 19 20 Total Returns 82.26%
check them over here: http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/ The figures they gave you are worthless. I'm always astonished how easy people give big amounts of money to people they don't even know. If they spent 500$ on a new refrigerator they shop around for weeks to be sure to have quality for a good price. In investing they spent in notime ten- or hundred fold the amount in an impulsive reaction. Collecting money from investors is the easies thing there is. Tell them what they want to hear and they will give you all you ask.
Perhaps you may do your own homework by analysing and comparing the performance against other managers specialising in Forex in the IASG database (There are more than 30, I guess) here: http://www.iasg.com/mainframe.asp? http://www.iasg.com/intro.asp
Why are they asking you? With that sort of record they should register with hedge fund tracking companies and would have people contacting them.