What is the best way to trade friend's money ?

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by ASTrader, Jan 2, 2008.

  1. IB lets you do everything you need. I trade my Mom's, Dad's, and Aunts. Mom and Dad are no problem. My Aunt drives me nutz. I have all allocated in 1/4's so each trade is the same. Mom and Dad are both IRA's so no tax problem, but the Aunt is a regular account, as is mine. I just point her to the website and hand hold her through the print process for taxes. Every other day she calls about some hot popular stock that is all hype and why aren't we in it.
    I have my own separate account for my futures trading, I don't want to tell her about futures.
     
    #21     Jan 4, 2008
  2. lol, that's funny but so true! I'm in forex and get the same thing, people have an insatiable urge to be involved somehow and feel it's their duty to 'help', lol. What can you say other than 'great idea, thanks for the tip, I'll take a look at that right now!'
     
    #22     Jan 4, 2008
  3. Mercor

    Mercor

    I would recommend you only paper trade your friend's money. Use a simulated account.

    Then when you lose all the money you can surprise him by returning his money
     
    #23     Jan 4, 2008
  4. I don't think he's simply adding to, or duplicating his trades. I get the sense that he's just going to trade the friend's money.

    ??

    Don
     
    #24     Jan 4, 2008
  5. jasonjm

    jasonjm


    dont do it
     
    #25     Jan 4, 2008
  6. Oh right, sorry I didn't realize that!
     
    #26     Jan 4, 2008
  7. I believe you have to pay tax for the performance fee received from trading OPM.

    Your friend can deduct the advisor fee.

    Does your friend's profit reported in 1099 from the brokerage firm is the net profit (i.e. profit - advisor fee paid to you if it is automatically charged as in IB advisor account)?
     
    #27     Jan 4, 2008
  8. don't trade his money. Let him keep it before you lose it and lose their friendship

    You THINK you have a very good system. You will learn quickly the first time you blow up.
     
    #28     Jan 4, 2008
  9. Jachyra

    Jachyra

    As far as qualifications, I think it pretty much is going to depend on what markets you're trading and how much money you're managing. As far as futures go, I think you're allowed to trade for as many as 15 people or manage less than $250k (my numbers may be off a bit) without needing to be a registered individual so long as you don't hold yourself out to others as a professional. I'm not really sure about other markets.

    As far as I know, you're always going to need a limited POA if you're trading an account that is in someone else's name. I think this is even true for registered individuals like IB's and CTA's, with the only exception being CPO's, hedge funds, and other similar structures.

    As far as the taxes go, the account holder is responsible for the tax liability, but any fees that he pays you is going to count as earned income that you will need to pay taxes on.
     
    #29     Jan 4, 2008
  10. I have traded friends' money before

    Make sure you have the means to repay your friends in-full if you blow-up (that way your friendship does not suffer)

    I only took on $10,000 and if any losses occured, I knew I had the $$$ to replinish their capital back to $10,000.

    This takes a lot of pressure off you and frees you to take on the risk you need to take to be effective.
     
    #30     Jan 4, 2008