what kind of returns did you experience averaged out with your other funds if you can elaborate? How did you get introed to be invested? You just called them up?
It's ok, I can tell you: It started back in the late 90's, when I used to have a futures trading account with MAN (It was called 'Jack Carl' back then), and I contacted their CTA advisory division for fund recommendations. This division was run by a slimy little lying serpent named Ozzie DiVeneri (sp?), who had the reverse Midas touch- Everything he touched turned to shit. God, I hate that guy- Anybody else here know him? Anyways, after pulling all my money from the three or four losers I got from DiVeneri, I obtained a source inside a very successful trading group, whom I paid off to find out which funds they liked. That's how I came to be invested in Seth Tobias's (R.I.P.) over-rated Circle T fund, and one other loser. Luckily, this source also taught me his group's fund investment criteria, which led me to invest in Edelman's 'Perceptive Life Sciences' fund, based on the impressive stats they put up on hedgefund.net . (Yes, "I just called them up.") This one investment has gone so well (compounded returns of 500%+ over the past 6 or 7 years), that the gains from Perceptive alone have covered more than double my losses from all the other crappy funds I bought into, combined. I'd still vouch for Perceptive, but I doubt that'll help many of you. Their minimum investment has since skyrocketed into the 7-figures. Why am I looking for more funds if Perceptive is so great? Diversification- I'm not one to put all my sluts in one basket.
Do you feel like, when looking for new funds to be in, you still sometimes feel like you are playing craps out there where you think can this fund continue this performance and not flop on me? who knows what will happen next year with the fund? Or do you invest the amount you don't mind losing 25% on only?
Yeah, I do kind of feel like that. However, the more due diligence work I put into this, the better my chances become. ...and I <i><b>always</i></b> mind losing money on bad investments; 25%, 10%, or 1%.
Just a little academic input, ignore me if you wish- If you derive your income from a type of investment vehicle or sector, you want to invest in assets that aren't correlated, i.e. you would underweight investment in actively managed securities, since you do it for a living. Even though your trading probably isn't correlated to other's strategies, your still amping up your risk, when I would want to offload some risk if my earnings were suceptible to the same possibility of a blow up. that said, if you put aside a small portion of your savings and used it as venture capital money, it could make sense. But the min. investment may prevent this. I would buy commercial REITs (for the long haul, obviously), some of the powershares or wisdom tree fundamentally weighted indexes, basically all passive investments with no leverage. Even Micheal Steinhardt said he has most of his money in index funds. Actually, why not buy some real estate income property with the intention of capitalzing on rising rent from people pushed out of their starter homes?
some years back I heard of a HF with 13Billion AUM and they only required 5k, yes $5000.00. They also did very well in 06. I think they are still doing very well, futures mostly, hope this helps. www.superfund.com
oh thats a rip off fund they are sitting pretty advertising on 42nd with their big-ol offices and their CEOs jetting around in jet planes with their "fees" their fees were like , manage fe - 1.85 , performance fees -25% , commissions -4% fofering expense -1% interest income -4% , like -8% in fees in on year, I don't know what they are thinking there. The fund may return up to 10% a year (which is crap already), but after their -8% fee, you get like 2% , might as well be invested in the S&P index.
I did not know they were a bad deal, someone who is uninformed gave me the article (come to think of it I believe it was in a fashion magazine) also why would they need to advertise on TV with such stringent rules on HF advertising on the BOOB tube I had not really looked into superfund, my last comment should be ignored. also, other than Timmay who would take 5K. my bad
And by the way : CEO of Quadriga ( Superfund ) has been a former police officer in Vienna, Austria before starting his entrepreneurship in 1996...now, Superfund Asset Management based in Grenada.... From "Superfund" U.S. prospectus : $25.00 per round-turn transaction for brokerage commissions, where brokerage commissions are charged in U.S. dollars, a portion of which will be paid to the clearing brokers for execution and clearing costs and the balance of which will be paid to Superfund Asset Management, Inc. which serves as introducing broker for each Series.Brokerage commissions for certain foreign futures contracts to be traded by the Fund are charged in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Commission rates for brokerage commissions charged in foreign currencies will be reset on the first day of each calendar month to the foreign currency equivalent of $25.00 based on the then current U.S. dollar exchange rate for the applicable foreign currencies. Daily fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates will, however, cause the actual commissions charged to the Fund for certain foreign futures contracts to be more or less than $25.00. and Conflicts of Interest Superfund Capital Management has a conflict of interest because it acts as the general partner and sole trading advisor for each Series. Since Superfund Capital Management acts as both trading advisor and general partner, it is very unlikely that its advisory contract will be terminated by each Series. The fees payable to Superfund Capital Management were established by it and were not the subject of arm's-length negotiation. Furthermore, the fact that Superfund Asset Management is an affiliate of Superfund Capital Management presents the possibility of Superfund Capital Management increasing the level of trading to generate greater commission income for Superfund Asset Management. See ""Conflicts of Interest.'' Translate : we apologize upfront for "possible" churning "effects"...Ha, ha, ha...
"Actually, why not buy some real estate income property with the intention of capitalzing on rising rent from people pushed out of their starter homes?" --->Become a landlord? No thank you. "also, other than Timmay who would take 5K. my bad" ---->Actually, Christian Baha and Timmay <i>do</i> have something else in common- They're both total media whores. Superfund makes me uneasy for some reason. I can't quite put my finger on it, but with their flashy/trendy style and all the celebrity endorsements and TV commercials? Fees of 7 and 25 (plus 3.75% brokerage fees on top of that) instead of the normal 2 and 20? It's all just so high profile and <i>Hollywood</i>, if you know what I mean. I'm actually kind of surprised they haven't gone under yet. Besides, trend following futures is one of the few strategies I look to avoid. Thanks anyways though.