In many states you are exempt if "advising" less than a set threshold of clients. Also, if the trading is futures-based, you are exempt, period, in many states as this usually falls under the complete jurisdiction of the NFA. For instance, in Oregon you do not have to register for CTA activities, and are exempt from state regulation if managing less than (I think) 5 clients.
i'm comfortable with stocks, thats pretty much all that I have studied and need at least 25k to trade my system. id rather take the money now and work at night/weekends for additional cash
It does not have to be that complicated, just form simple partnership with two of them as general partners and do what they tell you to do . If they tell you to trade stocks, trade stocks. If they tell you to stop, just stop. Make sure that agreement spells out what will happen if money is lost.
Go to a reputable pro or prop stock trading firm like Bright or Echo. That means getting a series 7. Initially you will get 10:1 or more levarage on your $55k. That means you can put in play $1/2M at a time. But, when you first start out, trade 100-200 shares at a time. If you are really sharp, you will be break even trading in three months (you will have lost some of your money the first three months.) From that day on where you are not losing money, double your size everyday you win, and half your size every time you lose, until you cannot take the size emotionally/psychologically or you reach your max leverage. $55K in a retail account is nearly worthless if you want to trade conservatively. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but the more money you have,the more conservative you can be by putting most of it to play. nitro
Right now your to arrogant to trade.. its so appearant. I would advise your backers to back out. Just cause a person is financially wealthy doesn't mean he should just throw money away on a person with no real plan. They are actually doing you a disservice in the long run. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52635&perpage=6&pagenumber=3 There is a saying in palm beach, friends are friends, till moneys involved. So if you want to keep these people as your friends I suggest you don't look to them as a free handout Regardless their generosity on a meal of 50. Also I would not be sure how long they would be associated with you if they knew you were portraying them as such gluttons. There is also an ancient chinese saying. That the fatulance with the most stink is not the loudest fart, but the quiet ones have the most potent smell. You my friend are a loud fart.
In the west the ancient saying is 'Silent but deadly.' Known by every high school kid. But the Chinese knew that too! The wisdom of the east seems to cover everthing.
Like a few others said, prop is the way to go. At Assent you could put down $10k, get $100k BP and not have to risk other peoples money. In my opinion trading other peoples $ is much harder than trading your own...you would be making trading twice as difficult.
They fund your trading because they believe in your courage to accept the challenge, not because you can give them some higher returns on their investments, in fact, they are not even investing in you! They say to themselves: heck, this guy has lots of balls, why not let him check whether he has any? Very few rich colleague 'kids' behave like that. It happens to you, so grab your chance. Trading with a small account sucks. You are constantly fighting to make it grow and most of the times this fight is lost at the start. But You posted that you will be buying/selling randomly. This is not trading and definitely not fun. You need to get some fun out of trading. You have no financial worries which is great. This can, by itself, remove most of the trading ghosts lurking behind your shoulders. You are a psychologist, you know what I mean. To be profitable you need to face trading with some HARD OBJECTIVES: -What IS YOUR OBJECTIVE in terms of day/week/... -How are you going to let the charts tell you when to buy or when to sell. -What percentage of your account are you willing to give to the market if your move is not what you have expected it to be? Once you have worked it out, go and trade or you will resent having missed a good chance in early life.
I can't believe you are making an issue about your situation. There is nothing better in the world of trading that learning to trade with OPM, just ask any hedge fund manager... 40K is beer money for many....make sure not to sign any documents which could make you liable for the eventual losses all new traders have experienced in the history of the markets..... Welcome to the Inquisition !