In addition to a solid 2-year track record, you need a coherent story that focuses on why your system/method will continue to work in the future and how you're going to scale up. There will be a lot of questions and you need great answers.
Save your money, get a job and save your money. That's what I'm doing, fuck kow towing to an employee.
if past performance is no guarantee of future performance and we all know the future is unpredictable how is this done? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In addition to a solid 2-year track record, you need a coherent story that focuses on why your system/method will continue to work in the future and how you're going to scale up.
OK so what kind of costs are we talking here? If you have to trade your own money how much? $100,000+? What is a "low drawdown" 1%, 3%, 5%, 8%? Week/month/year...?
What amounts are you thinking to raise? Here is how I started small: 1) Develop your trading strategy and first prove to yourself that you are able to trade profitably for several months at least. More importantly, if you are convinced to stay profitable with this strategy. Market conditions do change. Ask yourself if you can handle the potential disappointment of your investor(s), if you take a beating with their deposit. 2) Present your success rate on paper. Get into conversations, and tell selected people such as friends or family that you are able to do it. Ideally they should know what you are doing beforehand, so it doesn't sound like "Hey, I have this and that, do you want to buy it?" all of a sudden. I am surprised myself how willing they are at handing out cash, just by looking at the statements. All they see is the easy profit through you. They don't know anything about what you are doing anyway, so your job is to show some competence and self-confidence while talking to the prospect. Give them the feeling that you have the ability, talk calmly and intelligently. Maybe it's my aura that is the key, who knows. Also consider to arrange something on risk (e.g. if their deposit drops to a certain amount, you will quit and hand the remainings back). This will actually increase their willingness. 3) After one or two years, pick up the phone and start ringing up people with real money. Lawyers are helpful, too, for all the paperwork. Total strangers. Oh, and ask money managers who already run a fund, they can give you helpful insights. IASG.com might be of help for a list of funds. Tell them that you have experience managing money already in a small scale and talk convincingly as you did with your closer mates (just on a more professional level). Prove everything with paper. People want to see things black on white. Finally, I want to say that managing money is not as easy as everybody hopes it to be. It's really stressful. I am a very responsible person and mind investor's interests the whole time. You have to know if you are comfortable using OPM, so I believe testing it on a smaller scale with a few friends is a better starting point. Perhaps you don't like it after all and can easily quit at step 2.
If you can cut it as a stock or commodities broker, even if only for a year or two, then you'll be doing yourself a huge favor in the long haul. Invaluable experience for anyone wanting to manage piles of money.