8
Home About Best of Estimize Disclaimer  The Hedge Fund Structure Is Dead Posted by Leigh Drogen on November 1st, 2010 This post is f or those of you out there looking to st art your own fi rms and m anage money f or others. The hedge fu nd structure is still nece ssa ry f or those who trade compl ex strategies usin g derivativ es or ill iqui d assets . But for  most of us, the stock, forex, and futures traders who go long and short the underlying, the hedge fund structure is obsolete and I’m declaring its death. Advances in technology, which in hindsight really weren’t that difficult, allow investment managers to trade m ul tipl e separa te ac counts across the sa m e stra tegy at the same exact tim e. Th e mai n draw of the hedge f un d structure previously was the abil ity for the m anager to tr ade one account from one scree n. The l im ited  part n ersh i p l egal str u ctu re s u cks, plai n an d si m pl e, i t’s ex pen si v e to s et u p, req u i res m an y h eadach es al on g th e way when adding and subtracting clients, and adversely effects the other partners when someone pulls money out or puts money i n. Whoever thought that comm in gl in g funds was a good idea in the fi rst place needs to be (fi ll in ruthless torture scenario here). It has caused a great deal of pain for many investors who’ve had their funds outright stolen by the general partner, had gates thrown down on the removal of their assets from the partnership, and everythi ng bad in bet ween. As I said above, the li m ited par tnershi p structure serves a purpose when deali ng with illiquid assets that are hard to buy and keep track of across different accounts, save for that, it serves zero  pu rpos e th ese day s. Only a few years ago when I was a trader/analyst for an investment management firm up in White Plains, NY named Geller Capital Manag ement, we u sed two dif f erent stru ctures. There was a fu nd and th ere were separat e accounts.  Th e f und was an archaic v ehicle h eld over from a previous f irm my boss ran. The strategy h ad changed, bu t th e str ucture was s til l there a nd i t was useful to so m e extent. But th e majority of the m oney we m anag ed was in separate a ccoun ts. We ran accoun ts as sm all as $100,000 a nd as bi g as $12,000, 000. Th ey were all treated t he same way. Bu t at the tim e, the technol ogy di d not allow us to trade those a ccoun ts as e asil y as I can toda y. Staff was n eeded to all ocate the corre ct am ount of shares across the acc ounts. Por tfol io tracking software (Advent) was needed to determine if those shares had been allocated correctly, it was time consuming and expensive. At the end of the day the allocating shares system works, it just doesn’t work well if you run a one or two man shop. So if you were trying to start your own fi rm thi s just isn’t the way to go, it was hedge f und structure or  nothing.

The Hedge Fund Structure

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Page 1: The Hedge Fund Structure

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 18

Home

About

Best of

Estimize

Disclaimer

The Hedge Fund Structure Is Dead

Posted by Leigh Drogen

on November 1st 2010

This post is for those of you out there looking to start your own firms and manage money for others The hedge

fund structure is still necessary for those who trade complex strategies using derivatives or illiquid assets But formost of us the stock forex and futures traders who go long and short the underlying the hedge fund structure is

obsolete and Irsquom declaring its death

Advances in technology which in hindsight really werenrsquot that difficult allow investment managers to trade

multiple separate accounts across the same strategy at the same exact time The main draw of the hedge fund

structure previously was the ability for the manager to trade one account from one screen The limited

partnership legal structure sucks plain and simple itrsquos expensive to set up requires many headaches along the

way when adding and subtracting clients and adversely effects the other partners when someone pulls money ou

or puts money in Whoever thought that commingling funds was a good idea in the first place needs to be (fill in

ruthless torture scenario here) It has caused a great deal of pain for many investors whorsquove had their funds

outright stolen by the general partner had gates thrown down on the removal of their assets from the partnership

and everything bad in between As I said above the limited partnership structure serves a purpose when dealing

with illiquid assets that are hard to buy and keep track of across different accounts save for that it serves zero

purpose these days

Only a few years ago when I was a traderanalyst for an investment management firm up in White Plains NY

named Geller Capital Management we used two different structures There was a fund and there were separate

accounts The fund was an archaic vehicle held over from a previous firm my boss ran The strategy had

changed but the structure was still there and it was useful to some extent But the majority of the money we

managed was in separate accounts We ran accounts as small as $100000 and as big as $12000000 They

were all treated the same way But at the time the technology did not allow us to trade those accounts as easily

as I can today Staff was needed to allocate the correct amount of shares across the accounts Portfolio

tracking software (Advent) was needed to determine if those shares had been allocated correctly it was time

consuming and expensive

At the end of the day the allocating shares system works it just doesnrsquot work well if you run a one or two man

shop So if you were trying to start your own firm this just isnrsquot the way to go it was hedge fund structure or

nothing

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 28

But not anymore Now the following may sound like an advertisement for Interactive Brokers but I can assure

you I am in no way shape or form affiliated with that company In fact I have plenty of gripes with them they

are without a doubt the worst institutional and retail brokerage in terms of customer service they really just

couldnrsquot give a crap Thatrsquos ok itrsquos their business model they have decided to put their money towards

technology and not service opposite of Schwab

I would not have been able to set up my firm a few years ago if it were not for the technology on the IB Trader

Workstation platform Because of them I donrsquot need a back office and I sure as hell donrsquot need a hedge fund

structure If you are looking to set up your own firm here is a very simple way to do it that will save you a ton o

hassle a ton of money and a ton of time and you lose absolutely nothing

Surfview Capital is an LLC very simple It cost me a couple hundred dollars to set up and a few weeks I

didnrsquot need an expensive lawyer to draw up partnership documents and I sure as hell donrsquot need one going

forward

I set up an institutional account at Interactive Brokers under my LLC very simple They ask you a minimal

amount of questions and donrsquot require much in the way of forms and you have an institutional account open

The next step is not necessary but I feel that it is a good show of faith in yourself to your clients or prospective

clients When you set up your institutional master account Interactive Brokers will ask you if you would like to

open up a sub trading account for your LLC Do it and run the money in there the exact same way you are

running money for your clients This shows that you are willing to put your firmrsquos own money on the line along

side you clientrsquos in the same strategy whatrsquos good for them is not only now good for you in terms of fees it is

directly going to impact your firm in terms of PampL on your own account This goes a long way to showing that

you truly believe in yourself even beyond past performance

Next you need an investment management agreement for your firm This document takes some time to put

together and needs to be done by a lawyer The document itself is pretty simple and many investment managersuse the same one with a few little tweaks My advice if you want to be cheap about it find one online from

another firm that trades the same assets as you and modify it Then take it to the lawyer and have them look it

over to make sure its kosher Otherwise have the lawyer just write it up yoursquore going to pay for it but getting

this right is important This is the agreement between you and the client that lays out everything that isnrsquot said in

the Interactive Brokers managed account sign up process The truth is that you donrsquot need this document

legally But to be safe and cover yourself in case of a dispute in reality you need it I would share mine here

but something tells me thatrsquos just not the right thing to do and it could be illegal I donrsquot know

Bringing clients into your firm is not a difficult process when you set up the structure the way I have Herersquos how

it works Someone contacts me either through the web site the blog Twitter a friend of a friend a friend of aclient or however else they might find Surfview Capital We have a few conversations I ask them an extensive

list of questions they ask me any questions they have and if we both feel like therersquos a mutual fit I send them the

investment management agreement We review it together they sign it and send it back to me I then go into my

Interactive Brokers platform and send them an invitation to open a brokerage account This account is their

own it is not under your LLC you donrsquot have any access to the funds in the account you can not move money

in and out you have no power of attorney over the account it is theirs just as it would be had they signed up

without you The invitation to open the brokerage account comes with another electronic sheet (this is all

electronic by the way there is no actual paper required itrsquos amazing) the second set of forms gives you the

permission to trade the account and it lays out how you will bill the client You can choose from several

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 38

different ways I wonrsquot cover that here you will figure it out when you get in there and look around but basically

itrsquos all automated and thatrsquos awesome

The client fills out the forms online and opens the account Their account is now under your master account you

have access to trade it and the fees are automatically taken out there is no billing or invoicing no back office no

computing stuff itrsquos all done automatically amazing You need to take the time to do a back of the napkin

review at the end of each quarter to make sure that something huge didnrsquot go wrong some form wasnrsquot

incorrectly filled out and wayyyy too much or too little was charged but I havenrsquot run into an issue yet Just be

diligent and look for obvious errors

The client then funds the account and thatrsquos about it for the signup process You never touch a dollar of theirs

ever The only paperwork you handle is sending them the investment management agreement And thatrsquos it for

the rest of the term of your relationship with them You trade their account within your master account on your

Trader Workstation in IB and IB bills them automatically and puts the money in your master account You can

then withdraw those fees from your master account at any time or leave them in there or transfer them to your

LLCrsquos trading account One nice aspect for hedge fund managers with the partnership structure is that when the

manager takes his fees he takes it in the form of an increased ownership in the partnership We also call this

carried interest The manager now has a larger stake in the partnership and he benefits from the fund doing well just as the clients do So in a sense you can create this by just moving your fees from the master account to the

trading account and believe me your clients will respect you for it The downside is that the IRS treats this as

income not carried interest which means you do have to pay taxes on your fees now

Now herersquos where we get down to the real reason this all works Remember before I said that at Geller Capital

we had to allocate shares to each account a tiresome process that needed many checks and checks and

rechecks There is none of that The Trader Workstation platform allows you to trade all of your client sub

accounts at the same exact time without allocating shares Herersquos how it works Interactive Brokers allows you

to group accounts together and trade them all at once using the Portfolio Rebalance tool This page allows you

to say I want to buy 5 of each accountrsquos net liquidation value in Apple The screen that you are looking at isthe aggregate of all of the accounts in that group itrsquos almost like you are looking at the group as a fund When

you buy a 5 position it automatically calculates the amount of shares needed to buy a 5 position in each

account with a different net liquidation value You donrsquot see any of this or have to deal with any allocations

You trade off of one screen If you want to sell half that position late you go back to the rebalance screen and

enter 25 where the 5 was previously Hit create orders and it will create all the orders for all the accounts

Hit transmit and you trade for each account at the same time

The great part here is that I can trade 500 accounts with the same effort it takes to trade 1 That is the beauty

and the reason that the hedge fund structure is dead You couldnrsquot do this before Each of my clients has his or

her own account and it doesnrsquot cost me anything in terms of effort to trade

As I said this only works for certain strategies that arenrsquot too complicated Once you start getting into

derivatives and illiquid securities it gets a little more difficult Also if you are dealing with thin securities or

derivatives you have to makes sure that all accounts got filled on the trade Itrsquos not fair that one client gets filled

at one price and another client another price this is very bad

In terms of reporting and tax stuff there is no need to do anything for either All of the tax forms are prepared

automatically by Interactive Brokers for your clients and reports are generated automatically each day They can

have it sent straight to their email if they like or you can just review it once a quarter with them at the end They

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 48

can also see whatrsquos in their account at any time by logging in Yea what a novel concept a client being able to

see whatrsquos in their account I do not let my clients trade inside the account but the platform does allow this too

itrsquos their account The whole thing just makes a lot of sense

If you are looking to manage money for otherrsquos and are looking for a structure I feel this is the best way to go

for the client and the manager I hope this helps some of you out there looking to do so The partnership

structure has lead to a lot of heartache for many people most notably clients of Bernie Madoff There is no need

to custody your assets with your investment manager absolutely none And if they ask for that privilege walk

the other way and say thanks but no thanks

The hedge fund structure is dead

Note you must comply with all state and or SEC regulations as well which includes being a registered

investment advisor There is a maximum threshold for the number of accounts and aggregate capital you can

manage before having to register this goes state by state do your homework you can get started without it but

need to register eventually

mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashndash

After running Surfview Capital for 2+ years with excellent returns (30+ each year with max 6 drawdown) in

2011 I returned money to investors in order to found a financial technology startup called Estimize Irsquom always

glad to answer any questions about Surfview Capital the strategies we ran my background Estimize etc I do

not consult on how to set up asset management firms or how to raise capital from investors If yoursquore interested

in chatting you can reach me at leigh at estimize dot com

Full Disclosure Nothing on this site should ever be considered to be advice research or an invitation to

buy or sell any securities please see the Disclaimer page for a full disclaimer

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 58

3 comments

Whats this

How To Make Earnings Estimates For

Non Pro Analysts

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300

Stock This Time Next Year

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In HighGrowth Momentum hellip

What The Foxconn Robots Mean For Globalization

Measured Me Should Apple Build The

iPod of Personal hellip

Speaking of Thanksgiving D inner

The Law Of Unbundling Review of 10 Favorite Stocks For 2012

Leave a message

BestBest CommunityCommunity My DisqusMy Disqus

ShareShare

Rob bull

What is the theoretical minimum amount a client would have to fund a new account with

1

z bull

What about commision

Joe Harris bull How would you charge an incentive fee with this approach

983154

0

blog comments powered by Disqus

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 68

Share Ideas amp Learn

Leigh Drogen is the founder and chief investment officer of Surfview Capital LLC a New York based

investment management firm employing an intermediate term longshort momentum strategy More raquo

Search

LDrogen Social media algorithms andyour browser The new investmentlandscape via fawceisfawce

httpstkscocfAS August 16 212 pm

LDrogen There is a very visible error for

the wall street revenue for $WMT onEstimize provided by ZacksResearchthey are working on the issue

August 14 859 pm

LDrogen The $JCP consensus trendover time chart is basically straight downshould accelerate now

httpstkscodemz August 14 448 pm

LDrogen If $M was that bad $JCP isgoing to be a bloodbath

August 14 447 pm

LDrogen Where do I even start w iththis httpstkscosORP $$

August 14 331 pm

LDrogen monster numbers for $MYGNwow httpstkscoberQ

August 14 311 pm

Recent Posts

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In High Growth Momentum Stocks

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300 Stock This Time Next Year

How To Make Earnings Estimates For Non Pro Analysts

Teaching How To Think About The Market Like A Hedge Fund Manager

Keeping Other Team Members On An Even Keel

Airbnb Set to Crush Home Away Eat Marriottrsquos Lunch and Come Public at $10B+ Valuation

Why I Joined WordSentry As An Advisor

Leigh Drogen on StockTwits

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 78

Launching Private Companies On Estimize

What Do Maps Politics Google Collaborative Data Privacy Waze and Commerce All Have In

Common

Democracy Vs Rule of Law

Archives

August 2013

July 2013

June 2013

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 88

Leigh Drogen(httpkloutcomuserLDrogen

tp=overallampte=badgeampsource=widgetampcreative=widget

57

Home |

About |

Contact

This material is provided for informational purposes only as of the date hereof and is subject to change without

noticeThis material may not be suitable for all investors and is not intended to be an offer or the solicitation of

any offer to buy or sell any securities

Page 2: The Hedge Fund Structure

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 28

But not anymore Now the following may sound like an advertisement for Interactive Brokers but I can assure

you I am in no way shape or form affiliated with that company In fact I have plenty of gripes with them they

are without a doubt the worst institutional and retail brokerage in terms of customer service they really just

couldnrsquot give a crap Thatrsquos ok itrsquos their business model they have decided to put their money towards

technology and not service opposite of Schwab

I would not have been able to set up my firm a few years ago if it were not for the technology on the IB Trader

Workstation platform Because of them I donrsquot need a back office and I sure as hell donrsquot need a hedge fund

structure If you are looking to set up your own firm here is a very simple way to do it that will save you a ton o

hassle a ton of money and a ton of time and you lose absolutely nothing

Surfview Capital is an LLC very simple It cost me a couple hundred dollars to set up and a few weeks I

didnrsquot need an expensive lawyer to draw up partnership documents and I sure as hell donrsquot need one going

forward

I set up an institutional account at Interactive Brokers under my LLC very simple They ask you a minimal

amount of questions and donrsquot require much in the way of forms and you have an institutional account open

The next step is not necessary but I feel that it is a good show of faith in yourself to your clients or prospective

clients When you set up your institutional master account Interactive Brokers will ask you if you would like to

open up a sub trading account for your LLC Do it and run the money in there the exact same way you are

running money for your clients This shows that you are willing to put your firmrsquos own money on the line along

side you clientrsquos in the same strategy whatrsquos good for them is not only now good for you in terms of fees it is

directly going to impact your firm in terms of PampL on your own account This goes a long way to showing that

you truly believe in yourself even beyond past performance

Next you need an investment management agreement for your firm This document takes some time to put

together and needs to be done by a lawyer The document itself is pretty simple and many investment managersuse the same one with a few little tweaks My advice if you want to be cheap about it find one online from

another firm that trades the same assets as you and modify it Then take it to the lawyer and have them look it

over to make sure its kosher Otherwise have the lawyer just write it up yoursquore going to pay for it but getting

this right is important This is the agreement between you and the client that lays out everything that isnrsquot said in

the Interactive Brokers managed account sign up process The truth is that you donrsquot need this document

legally But to be safe and cover yourself in case of a dispute in reality you need it I would share mine here

but something tells me thatrsquos just not the right thing to do and it could be illegal I donrsquot know

Bringing clients into your firm is not a difficult process when you set up the structure the way I have Herersquos how

it works Someone contacts me either through the web site the blog Twitter a friend of a friend a friend of aclient or however else they might find Surfview Capital We have a few conversations I ask them an extensive

list of questions they ask me any questions they have and if we both feel like therersquos a mutual fit I send them the

investment management agreement We review it together they sign it and send it back to me I then go into my

Interactive Brokers platform and send them an invitation to open a brokerage account This account is their

own it is not under your LLC you donrsquot have any access to the funds in the account you can not move money

in and out you have no power of attorney over the account it is theirs just as it would be had they signed up

without you The invitation to open the brokerage account comes with another electronic sheet (this is all

electronic by the way there is no actual paper required itrsquos amazing) the second set of forms gives you the

permission to trade the account and it lays out how you will bill the client You can choose from several

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 38

different ways I wonrsquot cover that here you will figure it out when you get in there and look around but basically

itrsquos all automated and thatrsquos awesome

The client fills out the forms online and opens the account Their account is now under your master account you

have access to trade it and the fees are automatically taken out there is no billing or invoicing no back office no

computing stuff itrsquos all done automatically amazing You need to take the time to do a back of the napkin

review at the end of each quarter to make sure that something huge didnrsquot go wrong some form wasnrsquot

incorrectly filled out and wayyyy too much or too little was charged but I havenrsquot run into an issue yet Just be

diligent and look for obvious errors

The client then funds the account and thatrsquos about it for the signup process You never touch a dollar of theirs

ever The only paperwork you handle is sending them the investment management agreement And thatrsquos it for

the rest of the term of your relationship with them You trade their account within your master account on your

Trader Workstation in IB and IB bills them automatically and puts the money in your master account You can

then withdraw those fees from your master account at any time or leave them in there or transfer them to your

LLCrsquos trading account One nice aspect for hedge fund managers with the partnership structure is that when the

manager takes his fees he takes it in the form of an increased ownership in the partnership We also call this

carried interest The manager now has a larger stake in the partnership and he benefits from the fund doing well just as the clients do So in a sense you can create this by just moving your fees from the master account to the

trading account and believe me your clients will respect you for it The downside is that the IRS treats this as

income not carried interest which means you do have to pay taxes on your fees now

Now herersquos where we get down to the real reason this all works Remember before I said that at Geller Capital

we had to allocate shares to each account a tiresome process that needed many checks and checks and

rechecks There is none of that The Trader Workstation platform allows you to trade all of your client sub

accounts at the same exact time without allocating shares Herersquos how it works Interactive Brokers allows you

to group accounts together and trade them all at once using the Portfolio Rebalance tool This page allows you

to say I want to buy 5 of each accountrsquos net liquidation value in Apple The screen that you are looking at isthe aggregate of all of the accounts in that group itrsquos almost like you are looking at the group as a fund When

you buy a 5 position it automatically calculates the amount of shares needed to buy a 5 position in each

account with a different net liquidation value You donrsquot see any of this or have to deal with any allocations

You trade off of one screen If you want to sell half that position late you go back to the rebalance screen and

enter 25 where the 5 was previously Hit create orders and it will create all the orders for all the accounts

Hit transmit and you trade for each account at the same time

The great part here is that I can trade 500 accounts with the same effort it takes to trade 1 That is the beauty

and the reason that the hedge fund structure is dead You couldnrsquot do this before Each of my clients has his or

her own account and it doesnrsquot cost me anything in terms of effort to trade

As I said this only works for certain strategies that arenrsquot too complicated Once you start getting into

derivatives and illiquid securities it gets a little more difficult Also if you are dealing with thin securities or

derivatives you have to makes sure that all accounts got filled on the trade Itrsquos not fair that one client gets filled

at one price and another client another price this is very bad

In terms of reporting and tax stuff there is no need to do anything for either All of the tax forms are prepared

automatically by Interactive Brokers for your clients and reports are generated automatically each day They can

have it sent straight to their email if they like or you can just review it once a quarter with them at the end They

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 48

can also see whatrsquos in their account at any time by logging in Yea what a novel concept a client being able to

see whatrsquos in their account I do not let my clients trade inside the account but the platform does allow this too

itrsquos their account The whole thing just makes a lot of sense

If you are looking to manage money for otherrsquos and are looking for a structure I feel this is the best way to go

for the client and the manager I hope this helps some of you out there looking to do so The partnership

structure has lead to a lot of heartache for many people most notably clients of Bernie Madoff There is no need

to custody your assets with your investment manager absolutely none And if they ask for that privilege walk

the other way and say thanks but no thanks

The hedge fund structure is dead

Note you must comply with all state and or SEC regulations as well which includes being a registered

investment advisor There is a maximum threshold for the number of accounts and aggregate capital you can

manage before having to register this goes state by state do your homework you can get started without it but

need to register eventually

mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashndash

After running Surfview Capital for 2+ years with excellent returns (30+ each year with max 6 drawdown) in

2011 I returned money to investors in order to found a financial technology startup called Estimize Irsquom always

glad to answer any questions about Surfview Capital the strategies we ran my background Estimize etc I do

not consult on how to set up asset management firms or how to raise capital from investors If yoursquore interested

in chatting you can reach me at leigh at estimize dot com

Full Disclosure Nothing on this site should ever be considered to be advice research or an invitation to

buy or sell any securities please see the Disclaimer page for a full disclaimer

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 58

3 comments

Whats this

How To Make Earnings Estimates For

Non Pro Analysts

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300

Stock This Time Next Year

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In HighGrowth Momentum hellip

What The Foxconn Robots Mean For Globalization

Measured Me Should Apple Build The

iPod of Personal hellip

Speaking of Thanksgiving D inner

The Law Of Unbundling Review of 10 Favorite Stocks For 2012

Leave a message

BestBest CommunityCommunity My DisqusMy Disqus

ShareShare

Rob bull

What is the theoretical minimum amount a client would have to fund a new account with

1

z bull

What about commision

Joe Harris bull How would you charge an incentive fee with this approach

983154

0

blog comments powered by Disqus

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 68

Share Ideas amp Learn

Leigh Drogen is the founder and chief investment officer of Surfview Capital LLC a New York based

investment management firm employing an intermediate term longshort momentum strategy More raquo

Search

LDrogen Social media algorithms andyour browser The new investmentlandscape via fawceisfawce

httpstkscocfAS August 16 212 pm

LDrogen There is a very visible error for

the wall street revenue for $WMT onEstimize provided by ZacksResearchthey are working on the issue

August 14 859 pm

LDrogen The $JCP consensus trendover time chart is basically straight downshould accelerate now

httpstkscodemz August 14 448 pm

LDrogen If $M was that bad $JCP isgoing to be a bloodbath

August 14 447 pm

LDrogen Where do I even start w iththis httpstkscosORP $$

August 14 331 pm

LDrogen monster numbers for $MYGNwow httpstkscoberQ

August 14 311 pm

Recent Posts

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In High Growth Momentum Stocks

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300 Stock This Time Next Year

How To Make Earnings Estimates For Non Pro Analysts

Teaching How To Think About The Market Like A Hedge Fund Manager

Keeping Other Team Members On An Even Keel

Airbnb Set to Crush Home Away Eat Marriottrsquos Lunch and Come Public at $10B+ Valuation

Why I Joined WordSentry As An Advisor

Leigh Drogen on StockTwits

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 78

Launching Private Companies On Estimize

What Do Maps Politics Google Collaborative Data Privacy Waze and Commerce All Have In

Common

Democracy Vs Rule of Law

Archives

August 2013

July 2013

June 2013

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 88

Leigh Drogen(httpkloutcomuserLDrogen

tp=overallampte=badgeampsource=widgetampcreative=widget

57

Home |

About |

Contact

This material is provided for informational purposes only as of the date hereof and is subject to change without

noticeThis material may not be suitable for all investors and is not intended to be an offer or the solicitation of

any offer to buy or sell any securities

Page 3: The Hedge Fund Structure

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 38

different ways I wonrsquot cover that here you will figure it out when you get in there and look around but basically

itrsquos all automated and thatrsquos awesome

The client fills out the forms online and opens the account Their account is now under your master account you

have access to trade it and the fees are automatically taken out there is no billing or invoicing no back office no

computing stuff itrsquos all done automatically amazing You need to take the time to do a back of the napkin

review at the end of each quarter to make sure that something huge didnrsquot go wrong some form wasnrsquot

incorrectly filled out and wayyyy too much or too little was charged but I havenrsquot run into an issue yet Just be

diligent and look for obvious errors

The client then funds the account and thatrsquos about it for the signup process You never touch a dollar of theirs

ever The only paperwork you handle is sending them the investment management agreement And thatrsquos it for

the rest of the term of your relationship with them You trade their account within your master account on your

Trader Workstation in IB and IB bills them automatically and puts the money in your master account You can

then withdraw those fees from your master account at any time or leave them in there or transfer them to your

LLCrsquos trading account One nice aspect for hedge fund managers with the partnership structure is that when the

manager takes his fees he takes it in the form of an increased ownership in the partnership We also call this

carried interest The manager now has a larger stake in the partnership and he benefits from the fund doing well just as the clients do So in a sense you can create this by just moving your fees from the master account to the

trading account and believe me your clients will respect you for it The downside is that the IRS treats this as

income not carried interest which means you do have to pay taxes on your fees now

Now herersquos where we get down to the real reason this all works Remember before I said that at Geller Capital

we had to allocate shares to each account a tiresome process that needed many checks and checks and

rechecks There is none of that The Trader Workstation platform allows you to trade all of your client sub

accounts at the same exact time without allocating shares Herersquos how it works Interactive Brokers allows you

to group accounts together and trade them all at once using the Portfolio Rebalance tool This page allows you

to say I want to buy 5 of each accountrsquos net liquidation value in Apple The screen that you are looking at isthe aggregate of all of the accounts in that group itrsquos almost like you are looking at the group as a fund When

you buy a 5 position it automatically calculates the amount of shares needed to buy a 5 position in each

account with a different net liquidation value You donrsquot see any of this or have to deal with any allocations

You trade off of one screen If you want to sell half that position late you go back to the rebalance screen and

enter 25 where the 5 was previously Hit create orders and it will create all the orders for all the accounts

Hit transmit and you trade for each account at the same time

The great part here is that I can trade 500 accounts with the same effort it takes to trade 1 That is the beauty

and the reason that the hedge fund structure is dead You couldnrsquot do this before Each of my clients has his or

her own account and it doesnrsquot cost me anything in terms of effort to trade

As I said this only works for certain strategies that arenrsquot too complicated Once you start getting into

derivatives and illiquid securities it gets a little more difficult Also if you are dealing with thin securities or

derivatives you have to makes sure that all accounts got filled on the trade Itrsquos not fair that one client gets filled

at one price and another client another price this is very bad

In terms of reporting and tax stuff there is no need to do anything for either All of the tax forms are prepared

automatically by Interactive Brokers for your clients and reports are generated automatically each day They can

have it sent straight to their email if they like or you can just review it once a quarter with them at the end They

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 48

can also see whatrsquos in their account at any time by logging in Yea what a novel concept a client being able to

see whatrsquos in their account I do not let my clients trade inside the account but the platform does allow this too

itrsquos their account The whole thing just makes a lot of sense

If you are looking to manage money for otherrsquos and are looking for a structure I feel this is the best way to go

for the client and the manager I hope this helps some of you out there looking to do so The partnership

structure has lead to a lot of heartache for many people most notably clients of Bernie Madoff There is no need

to custody your assets with your investment manager absolutely none And if they ask for that privilege walk

the other way and say thanks but no thanks

The hedge fund structure is dead

Note you must comply with all state and or SEC regulations as well which includes being a registered

investment advisor There is a maximum threshold for the number of accounts and aggregate capital you can

manage before having to register this goes state by state do your homework you can get started without it but

need to register eventually

mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashndash

After running Surfview Capital for 2+ years with excellent returns (30+ each year with max 6 drawdown) in

2011 I returned money to investors in order to found a financial technology startup called Estimize Irsquom always

glad to answer any questions about Surfview Capital the strategies we ran my background Estimize etc I do

not consult on how to set up asset management firms or how to raise capital from investors If yoursquore interested

in chatting you can reach me at leigh at estimize dot com

Full Disclosure Nothing on this site should ever be considered to be advice research or an invitation to

buy or sell any securities please see the Disclaimer page for a full disclaimer

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 58

3 comments

Whats this

How To Make Earnings Estimates For

Non Pro Analysts

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300

Stock This Time Next Year

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In HighGrowth Momentum hellip

What The Foxconn Robots Mean For Globalization

Measured Me Should Apple Build The

iPod of Personal hellip

Speaking of Thanksgiving D inner

The Law Of Unbundling Review of 10 Favorite Stocks For 2012

Leave a message

BestBest CommunityCommunity My DisqusMy Disqus

ShareShare

Rob bull

What is the theoretical minimum amount a client would have to fund a new account with

1

z bull

What about commision

Joe Harris bull How would you charge an incentive fee with this approach

983154

0

blog comments powered by Disqus

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 68

Share Ideas amp Learn

Leigh Drogen is the founder and chief investment officer of Surfview Capital LLC a New York based

investment management firm employing an intermediate term longshort momentum strategy More raquo

Search

LDrogen Social media algorithms andyour browser The new investmentlandscape via fawceisfawce

httpstkscocfAS August 16 212 pm

LDrogen There is a very visible error for

the wall street revenue for $WMT onEstimize provided by ZacksResearchthey are working on the issue

August 14 859 pm

LDrogen The $JCP consensus trendover time chart is basically straight downshould accelerate now

httpstkscodemz August 14 448 pm

LDrogen If $M was that bad $JCP isgoing to be a bloodbath

August 14 447 pm

LDrogen Where do I even start w iththis httpstkscosORP $$

August 14 331 pm

LDrogen monster numbers for $MYGNwow httpstkscoberQ

August 14 311 pm

Recent Posts

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In High Growth Momentum Stocks

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300 Stock This Time Next Year

How To Make Earnings Estimates For Non Pro Analysts

Teaching How To Think About The Market Like A Hedge Fund Manager

Keeping Other Team Members On An Even Keel

Airbnb Set to Crush Home Away Eat Marriottrsquos Lunch and Come Public at $10B+ Valuation

Why I Joined WordSentry As An Advisor

Leigh Drogen on StockTwits

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 78

Launching Private Companies On Estimize

What Do Maps Politics Google Collaborative Data Privacy Waze and Commerce All Have In

Common

Democracy Vs Rule of Law

Archives

August 2013

July 2013

June 2013

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 88

Leigh Drogen(httpkloutcomuserLDrogen

tp=overallampte=badgeampsource=widgetampcreative=widget

57

Home |

About |

Contact

This material is provided for informational purposes only as of the date hereof and is subject to change without

noticeThis material may not be suitable for all investors and is not intended to be an offer or the solicitation of

any offer to buy or sell any securities

Page 4: The Hedge Fund Structure

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 48

can also see whatrsquos in their account at any time by logging in Yea what a novel concept a client being able to

see whatrsquos in their account I do not let my clients trade inside the account but the platform does allow this too

itrsquos their account The whole thing just makes a lot of sense

If you are looking to manage money for otherrsquos and are looking for a structure I feel this is the best way to go

for the client and the manager I hope this helps some of you out there looking to do so The partnership

structure has lead to a lot of heartache for many people most notably clients of Bernie Madoff There is no need

to custody your assets with your investment manager absolutely none And if they ask for that privilege walk

the other way and say thanks but no thanks

The hedge fund structure is dead

Note you must comply with all state and or SEC regulations as well which includes being a registered

investment advisor There is a maximum threshold for the number of accounts and aggregate capital you can

manage before having to register this goes state by state do your homework you can get started without it but

need to register eventually

mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashndash

After running Surfview Capital for 2+ years with excellent returns (30+ each year with max 6 drawdown) in

2011 I returned money to investors in order to found a financial technology startup called Estimize Irsquom always

glad to answer any questions about Surfview Capital the strategies we ran my background Estimize etc I do

not consult on how to set up asset management firms or how to raise capital from investors If yoursquore interested

in chatting you can reach me at leigh at estimize dot com

Full Disclosure Nothing on this site should ever be considered to be advice research or an invitation to

buy or sell any securities please see the Disclaimer page for a full disclaimer

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 58

3 comments

Whats this

How To Make Earnings Estimates For

Non Pro Analysts

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300

Stock This Time Next Year

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In HighGrowth Momentum hellip

What The Foxconn Robots Mean For Globalization

Measured Me Should Apple Build The

iPod of Personal hellip

Speaking of Thanksgiving D inner

The Law Of Unbundling Review of 10 Favorite Stocks For 2012

Leave a message

BestBest CommunityCommunity My DisqusMy Disqus

ShareShare

Rob bull

What is the theoretical minimum amount a client would have to fund a new account with

1

z bull

What about commision

Joe Harris bull How would you charge an incentive fee with this approach

983154

0

blog comments powered by Disqus

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 68

Share Ideas amp Learn

Leigh Drogen is the founder and chief investment officer of Surfview Capital LLC a New York based

investment management firm employing an intermediate term longshort momentum strategy More raquo

Search

LDrogen Social media algorithms andyour browser The new investmentlandscape via fawceisfawce

httpstkscocfAS August 16 212 pm

LDrogen There is a very visible error for

the wall street revenue for $WMT onEstimize provided by ZacksResearchthey are working on the issue

August 14 859 pm

LDrogen The $JCP consensus trendover time chart is basically straight downshould accelerate now

httpstkscodemz August 14 448 pm

LDrogen If $M was that bad $JCP isgoing to be a bloodbath

August 14 447 pm

LDrogen Where do I even start w iththis httpstkscosORP $$

August 14 331 pm

LDrogen monster numbers for $MYGNwow httpstkscoberQ

August 14 311 pm

Recent Posts

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In High Growth Momentum Stocks

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300 Stock This Time Next Year

How To Make Earnings Estimates For Non Pro Analysts

Teaching How To Think About The Market Like A Hedge Fund Manager

Keeping Other Team Members On An Even Keel

Airbnb Set to Crush Home Away Eat Marriottrsquos Lunch and Come Public at $10B+ Valuation

Why I Joined WordSentry As An Advisor

Leigh Drogen on StockTwits

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 78

Launching Private Companies On Estimize

What Do Maps Politics Google Collaborative Data Privacy Waze and Commerce All Have In

Common

Democracy Vs Rule of Law

Archives

August 2013

July 2013

June 2013

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 88

Leigh Drogen(httpkloutcomuserLDrogen

tp=overallampte=badgeampsource=widgetampcreative=widget

57

Home |

About |

Contact

This material is provided for informational purposes only as of the date hereof and is subject to change without

noticeThis material may not be suitable for all investors and is not intended to be an offer or the solicitation of

any offer to buy or sell any securities

Page 5: The Hedge Fund Structure

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 58

3 comments

Whats this

How To Make Earnings Estimates For

Non Pro Analysts

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300

Stock This Time Next Year

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In HighGrowth Momentum hellip

What The Foxconn Robots Mean For Globalization

Measured Me Should Apple Build The

iPod of Personal hellip

Speaking of Thanksgiving D inner

The Law Of Unbundling Review of 10 Favorite Stocks For 2012

Leave a message

BestBest CommunityCommunity My DisqusMy Disqus

ShareShare

Rob bull

What is the theoretical minimum amount a client would have to fund a new account with

1

z bull

What about commision

Joe Harris bull How would you charge an incentive fee with this approach

983154

0

blog comments powered by Disqus

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 68

Share Ideas amp Learn

Leigh Drogen is the founder and chief investment officer of Surfview Capital LLC a New York based

investment management firm employing an intermediate term longshort momentum strategy More raquo

Search

LDrogen Social media algorithms andyour browser The new investmentlandscape via fawceisfawce

httpstkscocfAS August 16 212 pm

LDrogen There is a very visible error for

the wall street revenue for $WMT onEstimize provided by ZacksResearchthey are working on the issue

August 14 859 pm

LDrogen The $JCP consensus trendover time chart is basically straight downshould accelerate now

httpstkscodemz August 14 448 pm

LDrogen If $M was that bad $JCP isgoing to be a bloodbath

August 14 447 pm

LDrogen Where do I even start w iththis httpstkscosORP $$

August 14 331 pm

LDrogen monster numbers for $MYGNwow httpstkscoberQ

August 14 311 pm

Recent Posts

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In High Growth Momentum Stocks

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300 Stock This Time Next Year

How To Make Earnings Estimates For Non Pro Analysts

Teaching How To Think About The Market Like A Hedge Fund Manager

Keeping Other Team Members On An Even Keel

Airbnb Set to Crush Home Away Eat Marriottrsquos Lunch and Come Public at $10B+ Valuation

Why I Joined WordSentry As An Advisor

Leigh Drogen on StockTwits

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 78

Launching Private Companies On Estimize

What Do Maps Politics Google Collaborative Data Privacy Waze and Commerce All Have In

Common

Democracy Vs Rule of Law

Archives

August 2013

July 2013

June 2013

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 88

Leigh Drogen(httpkloutcomuserLDrogen

tp=overallampte=badgeampsource=widgetampcreative=widget

57

Home |

About |

Contact

This material is provided for informational purposes only as of the date hereof and is subject to change without

noticeThis material may not be suitable for all investors and is not intended to be an offer or the solicitation of

any offer to buy or sell any securities

Page 6: The Hedge Fund Structure

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 68

Share Ideas amp Learn

Leigh Drogen is the founder and chief investment officer of Surfview Capital LLC a New York based

investment management firm employing an intermediate term longshort momentum strategy More raquo

Search

LDrogen Social media algorithms andyour browser The new investmentlandscape via fawceisfawce

httpstkscocfAS August 16 212 pm

LDrogen There is a very visible error for

the wall street revenue for $WMT onEstimize provided by ZacksResearchthey are working on the issue

August 14 859 pm

LDrogen The $JCP consensus trendover time chart is basically straight downshould accelerate now

httpstkscodemz August 14 448 pm

LDrogen If $M was that bad $JCP isgoing to be a bloodbath

August 14 447 pm

LDrogen Where do I even start w iththis httpstkscosORP $$

August 14 331 pm

LDrogen monster numbers for $MYGNwow httpstkscoberQ

August 14 311 pm

Recent Posts

How To Play Post Earnings Gaps In High Growth Momentum Stocks

Why LinkedIn (LNKD) Will be a $300 Stock This Time Next Year

How To Make Earnings Estimates For Non Pro Analysts

Teaching How To Think About The Market Like A Hedge Fund Manager

Keeping Other Team Members On An Even Keel

Airbnb Set to Crush Home Away Eat Marriottrsquos Lunch and Come Public at $10B+ Valuation

Why I Joined WordSentry As An Advisor

Leigh Drogen on StockTwits

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 78

Launching Private Companies On Estimize

What Do Maps Politics Google Collaborative Data Privacy Waze and Commerce All Have In

Common

Democracy Vs Rule of Law

Archives

August 2013

July 2013

June 2013

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 88

Leigh Drogen(httpkloutcomuserLDrogen

tp=overallampte=badgeampsource=widgetampcreative=widget

57

Home |

About |

Contact

This material is provided for informational purposes only as of the date hereof and is subject to change without

noticeThis material may not be suitable for all investors and is not intended to be an offer or the solicitation of

any offer to buy or sell any securities

Page 7: The Hedge Fund Structure

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 78

Launching Private Companies On Estimize

What Do Maps Politics Google Collaborative Data Privacy Waze and Commerce All Have In

Common

Democracy Vs Rule of Law

Archives

August 2013

July 2013

June 2013

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 88

Leigh Drogen(httpkloutcomuserLDrogen

tp=overallampte=badgeampsource=widgetampcreative=widget

57

Home |

About |

Contact

This material is provided for informational purposes only as of the date hereof and is subject to change without

noticeThis material may not be suitable for all investors and is not intended to be an offer or the solicitation of

any offer to buy or sell any securities

Page 8: The Hedge Fund Structure

8112019 The Hedge Fund Structure

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-hedge-fund-structure 88

Leigh Drogen(httpkloutcomuserLDrogen

tp=overallampte=badgeampsource=widgetampcreative=widget

57

Home |

About |

Contact

This material is provided for informational purposes only as of the date hereof and is subject to change without

noticeThis material may not be suitable for all investors and is not intended to be an offer or the solicitation of

any offer to buy or sell any securities