No. of Recommendations: 15
I am surprised, you seem to have a lot of fairly sophisticated ideas that a lot of people would pay to have access to.
+ Bottom detector
+ Options strategies
+ Falling knives ideas
Money management is a terrible way to make a living. If you aren't a sociopath, it's very stressful worrying about your clients' money. The regulatory nonsense burden is beyond description, so you need to be BIG. It suits those able to raise money, not those good at investing, And, of course, it's very difficult. Perhaps my experience is coloured a bit by having started just before the credit crunch : )
My greatest contribution to the industry, in my view, was my fee structure. 12% of any profits after all costs, but any loss I pay the client 2% of losses. No cap and a personal guarantee. It focuses the mind wonderfully. The biggest client, 8 figures for a public company, got double digits after fees in both 2008 and 2009 while fully hedged, so I call that a passable success. (at least I didn't have to give them money). One of my hedge fund clients had a sizeable percentage loss, redeeming during an admittedly bad NAV drawdown. One of my clients overrode my advice and sold WFC at $7.50, probably to Charlie Munger! He still did OK that year overall.
Jim
