If you just want to manage money for friends or family a partnership is probably all you need
Quote from Joetrader:
Well aside from the comment that all hedge fund blowups were brand name audits, (which is simply untrue, in fact most blow ups were either not audited at all or were audited by no name small firms) i would say you are indeed doing everything in your power to start now. I made my millions trading first and then set up house like a bigger firm I suppose, but if i had the desire to trade others capital when I was starting out there would really not be any other choice over what you are currently doing. The important thing for people to understand is that when you get into this business it is like running a business fulltime and then also trying to trade full time. So if you spend 12hrs a day studying and trading the markets successfully now you will likely be severely impacted by the strain of managing the business. Anyhow, kudos to you for going for it and may the trading gods be on your side!
Quote from Joetrader:
CPITrader - I started trading with only 8K and made millions first, then I started a fund with enough of my own money to be comfortable paying huge bills...
To all who think this sounds pessimistic, I counter that it is just realistic and that as far as I can tell it is the only way to grow from startup to 100M+ in todays world. I have also raised tens of millions from folks that I met while attending dinners with my legal, audit, PB, etc. and so it makes the extra mony spent well worth it. This is not pessimistic it is just a lot of work and it pays better than just about anything else.

Quote from CPTrader:
Now you get the pciture....just get the prper structure, keep your records (tradingstatemnets, etc) and do it right but no need initially to build the skyscraper!
Quote from nzbryant:
Proper structure for track record: THat means you need a fund with IM etc, for the track record to be taken seriously right? So still say US15-20K to set up (legal, printing etc).