My biggest aspiration is to become a successful hedge fund manager.

Question

I am a 15yr old boy who loves to trade and invest in multiple derivatives and securities. I believe in myself that i will survive in the cutthroat world of hedge funds. i have superb grades and am extremely motivated and will do what ever it takes to accomplish a goal. As a reader, am i on the right track? what other possible things could i do to help me reach my passionate dream? Thank you.

Answer 1

Keep up the stellar grades, you want to shoot for 4.0 of 4.0 GPA.

Schools:

Best Schools that Wall Street likes to see for hedge fund managers.

Harvard Business School

Yale Business School

Wharton Business School

Columbia Business School

NYU Business School

Just do whatever it takes (ethically) to get there. Forget about distance or costs. If you have top grades, top SAT's, top LSAT scores, you can get up to a full scholarship at Harvard.

I know of a couple people who had no money but perfect SAT and LSAT scores got a free Harvard education, and made millions later on.

So get top grades, top honors, then go to a top law school (like above).

What does law school have to do with trading? It doesn't. But understanding (securities law, mergers, law of finance, etc) is critically important in this business, and makes you more credible.

Then apply for a job at Goldman Sachs. Intern there in college is all poss, even if you get no money. Work you A** off. Cut social / party life to a min. Stay out of trouble. Watch out for gold diggers. Wear a condom at all times. I am not kidding.

You are sacrificing a little youth for a big pay off later.

It would not hurt to have a (Charter Financial Analyst) CFA designation.

http://www.cfainstitute.org/

GS will help you get this if you come on board.

Be SUPER persistent. Never take no for an answer. Write thank you letters, make appreciation phone calls for their time, etc, if turned down, then call next week. Unless they get angry, keep persisting. This is what you have to do in this bus.

Movies to Watch: For motivation, learning what to do and not to do.

Wall Street (1987)

Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)

Boiler Room (2000)

Good Luck!

Answer 2

Take all the advanced math you can and accounting, statistics and economics if your school offers it.  Plan on getting an MBA with a concentration in finance in college or a Masters in Financial Engineering if you can find a college that offers it.

Answer 3

You don't necessarily need good grades in school. You have to study hard abou the stock markets and the way it behaves. There are good books out there that can teach you and impart disciplines required to be a successful trader.

Hope that helps.

jh

http://stock-trading-ideas.com

Answer 4

man i wish i was young and could do it all over again!

make sure to line up some solid internships w/hedge funds.  hopefully you're located near a large city, but there are even plenty of hedge funds in cities like Houston (all the energy trading funds) and Palm Beach.   So do well in school, get internships, use that experience to get even better, more focused interships the next year, and you should be good to go.  

of course it helps to know the lingo, know the different types of hedge funds....what a long-short fund is...Fund of Funds (fairly obvious given the name)...who the big players are....know some of the big stories from hedgefund land....like the Amaranth Advisors/Brian Hunter meltdown...or the Cerberus Chrysler purchase...or even going back to LTCM's bailout.   know the big players like Citadel, Moore, Tiger, DE Shaw, Pirate Capital, the Goldman Sachs funds...

also, doing your CFA is a great way to get in early and learn a lot, frankly, just from studying the hedge fund section of the study material if you're not gonna take the actual test.

don't be afraid, when looking for internships, of some of the less-glamorous sounding funds, like prime funds.  right now, prime funds are big big money makers.  i turned down an offer from a prime fund last year, and i'm still kicking myself for it.  i was so stupid!  well, that's for another post i guess...

but good job on being a 15 yr old and being so focused.  stay focused and you'll do very well.