Please start trading. Read books and use what everybody uses, trendlines, break outs, channels, etc.. I need your money. Thanks.
The risk-free option no doubt would be an enticement to "profitable traders" for whom 20%-30% of profits is an enticement. In truth, the offer is a very poor one. The "ZERO" skin in the game is a non-issue simply because as soon as profits are made the trader has skin in the game which will just grow as more profits are made. Not to mention that the trader will do all the work while the $200K person can collect his 70%-80% playing golf. Now, if the person is talking $200 million, then yes 2/20 would for sure spark a lot of interest. But that's a different game than just trading.
Since you don't have the ability to trade which takes years of study and knowing how to backtest, having someone else trade for you is a huge mistake, way too many offer, but most folks can't figure out who is good and who isn't. If you have just 200k in it, I recommend a mutual fund, and don't only look at which ones do the best. I have always much more concerned on what the fund did in the down years of the S&P index. It takes so many years to recover from bad years, whereas if a fund didn't lose much in the bad year, it normally out performs all the others in 10-20 years. I know it doesn't sound exciting, but retirement funds are not to be highly risked by the inexperienced.
Yeah, anyone who knows how to trade, doesnt need your money and anyone who needs your money doesnt know how to trade. I would not recommend a mutual fund because mutual funds get paid by taking a little off the top every year whether or not the mutual fund makes money. If you want to learn how to trade, start with forex because you can open an account for about $1k and if you blow up, its no big deal. If you cant make money with a $1k account, you can't make money with a $200k account. Buy gold & silver if you want something safe that will always hold value.
it is always better to trade in a tax sheltered account to protect yourself from cap gains taxes. For most individuals, an index fund is much better for personal money since there is very little turnover. Sounds to me like you are a good canditate for an asset allocation program. Active trading is a risky business and only suitable to someone who can devote their life to it. At the very least, keep no more than 5% of you total net worth in any one stock (and that is pushing it.) As far as paying someone to manage it for you, you can use low cost mutual funds. Every so often listen to the people you respect and reallocate your funds based on their advice. If you are not convinced buy and hold is a good strategy, then you need to introduce cash and bonds into your plan. Tradfing as oppsed to buy and hold is usually a loser for most individuals, even less than 30% of professional money manages beat buy and hold over time. But yes, if you are going to trade, an IRA is the best place to do it because trading generates a lot of tax problems. Most would keep at least 90% invested in stocks and bonds and try their luck at trading 10% of total net worth.
Have you even tried keeping one of those fake portfolios at something like TheUpDown to test out whether what you're thinking about doing would work? Do you have an account somewhere where you can paper trade to at least have some idea what's going on? Have you read Security Analysis by Graham and Dodd? How about Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds? Do you know the difference between an ETF and an ETN? Have you spent time in front of a chart and tried to figure out whether the next bar will be red or green? Do you have any idea why puts are more expensive than calls? Was your first reaction to that question "what's a put?"
If the OP does not want buy and hold, no use going this route. Mutual funds = buy and hold. $200k is not going to get much interest at the wirehouses other than selling some funds and moving on.