Because it doesn't make logical sense to just trade privately if you are a consistently successful trader. Trading OPM in a fund has all the advantages. Bottom line is that OPM is essentially risk-free leverage.
private traders are available for hire, just ask.... also, the benefit to going upstairs (what we call it) is it removes the risk of personal loss and handling net P&L daily, in exchange for a steady paycheck and a hefty bonus (at least in expectation).... also, one can trade larger size, working upstairs, and longer durations through larger losses, because there's the president of TARP, c/o the GS principle...you know, he who has the goldman-sachs makes the rules....
Just ask LISTED--- they make SOOOO much money, retired by 30 all with an Etrade account and $500.00 bucks from granny. no need to be for "hire"
I understand the rationale for going to OPM but you would think that there would be some skilled trader that would feel more comfortable trading his own account rather playing with others money. You would think some of the hedge fund guys would quit after he got his millions in fee's and just run his own money if they were such great traders....
I've given this topic some thought, because it some what applies to me, and I've been trying to decide if managing OPM makes sense/rewarding. Let's say I have a $1mm account, and I have a strategy that gives me 25% a year. That translates to +$250k a year, obviously. Not bad money, after 10 years of compounding I'd have ~$6mm. Let's say that I instead managed a small fund and had $10mm of OPM. I don't think that really increases my trading burden too much (10x shares shouldn't add too much in slippage). If I charge 2-20, at 25% gains a year that translates into 7% of AUM going into my pockets. After 10 years, if I invest my returns/fees and didn't take another penny of OPM... believe it or not, I would have an additional $48 mm. And god help me if I actually stretched myself and brought in $50 mm of OPM in year 1... I would have $240mm in year 10. So, with that in mind, I really think launching a fund is the way to go.
Yeh but most of the people that post on this site don't have strategies that are scalable to that kind of size. I've never seen someone on this site who seriously trades macro or equity long/short, it's all tickfuckers here.