Job ads and 3+ Sharpe ratios

[sle]

Not to underestimate the value of a support system, but your claim depends on how much of the capacity you can fund yourself. If your choice is between your own $100k and keeping 100% payout on it vs running $5M of the funds money and keeping 30%, obviously the latter is better if you continue to make money(!), can keep them from copying you, they actually pay you as they say, etc. If you can fund 1/3 of the capacity yourself, the trade off between 100% and a 30% cut is about breakeven. I would not join a fund unless you could see meaningful advantages, both in terms of better trading capabilities and expected take home.

TBH, I doubt there would be a real fund out there that would care about strategies that have an output capacity of less then 5mm. Honestly, the worry about the fund taking your IP is far less important then worry that your strategy will stop working - most people I know try to keep up with R&D. There are some areas were alpha is more persistent, like HFT in FX, but in liquid products like stocks or futures strategies decay fairly quick.

Also, with good Sharpe numbers like those, you should be aiming for 50%.

Feels like that ship has sailed for most of the places, nowdays high 30s is the best you get according to my HFT connections. Not going to argue there, I am not an HFT trader.

 

[Equalizer]

A considerable number of HF job ads are pure BS. Quite a few are posted to inform their current employees who might be getting "itchy feet".

 

[Equalizer]

D'Oh, I meant "employers" not employees!