When reading this article "Things started to become more visceral," and I stopped reading at the beginning of page three...
This kid has done it i.e. good performance each year over 3-4 years. But doubt he is using only stocks. Even then the record is impressive and more so when he is attending school and running the markets from the class rooms.
only thing that concerns me is 1.) he is employing friends and 2.) there is really no need for employees with such a small amount of capital. 3.) this entire notion that for some reason he needs to raise 4X the capital he currently has within one year.. Why? "Will Graves and his team succeed? The odds are certainly against them. Without a five-year track record and at least $50 million in assets, not to mention a manager with a more traditional background, Caelum is likely to attract few (if any) institutional investors at this stage in its development." I hate these institutional assholes. The only thing the army of consultants and "professionals" at Institutions have accomplished is to herd pension funds and foundations into hot investments right before the bubble pops, and promise "diversification" schemes that fail at the critical moments leading to massive losses. It should be a badge of honor that thick headed conformist dweeb institutions do not want into an investment. That should mean there is a fair chance the run of solid performance has a ways to go.
Congratulations to him if this story is true (very few people are that disciplined at that age), but why does he have close to 100 trading positions?
What I don't get is how he called the subprime crisis in 2005, at 19 years old, when house prices were still going up! Meh, a bit jealous. And to own 80 stocks and achieve such incredible returns? Come on. At least admit he had a different strategy before, you don't own 80 stocks when you have $7000 and turn it into $340,000.
Look at his down months for this year, they are quite big. This means that he is taking a lot of risk, which is only seen when things just don't go your way. So his returns are very possible if u look at the his down months this yr. At the end, still an exceptional performance even if he blows up, at his age he will be able to come back much stronger. So good luck to him in the future, just hope he reduces the risk no and stops shooting for 300% yrs.
Because he and his friends want other people's money to play with. Seriously, there are so many red flags in that article, it's not even funny. Why would he even structure his trading into a hedge fund when the sum is so low. With his amazing returns, why does he seek OPM? Especially when structuring himself as a hedge fund he prevents his own family from giving him funds.