Hi - how important is it to have third party audit for your CTA firm. If yes, can you please recommend someone and how much do they charge.
It is not important if you know how to compute performance statistics, and if you are confident about what you've calculated. Most CTA's know how to do it, but are lazy. Hiring 3rd parties to do this for you does leave you more time to trade, but, just the same, anybody who uses 3rd parties will find potential investors want to use their own 3rd parties to perform audits, thus, it probably won't help legitimacy anyway since they'll want to use their own 3rd parties to compile performance reports than simply taking your 3rd party's word at face value. Really, hire another employee as I did to handle this task. They can become CTA's and since you know the most important thing is the daily accounting and net of fees calculations, this would be better than hiring 3rd parties. Do it internally, as long as you know what's involved and what you're doing. Your broker will send you daily statements, and you compute the net change percentage wise from those and that will give you VAMI and monthly performance figures.
Is it true that it is easier to raise assets if you have third party audits or funds would only invest in your program if your numbers are supported by a third party audit.
Ask the compliance officer of the firm where you clear your business. He will give you someone who worked with regulators before. RG
We have a CTA that uses a third party for all their tear sheets, monthly statements, and all performance reports. The performance numbers were delivered with in two business days of the end of the month, including the bill for the FCM. He was paid the next day. Very professional easy to read statements. If you min investment is very low, I'm not sure. If your looking for $100K plus from investors, very important to have a third party do this. If you would like the name of the company he uses, PM or email me. Bob