I have an ambition of building a hedge fund firm with 1 million trading capital with 150%( or better) confident annual return rate along the Pd.D degree in quantitative finance.As I am on the stage of defining the phD topic, I need to coordinate with the practical objectives. i.e. do a thesis on high return algorithms related study.1. Pd.D degree in quantitative finance related subject.2. A hedge fund firm with 1 million trading capital(I will start with my own equity) and 150%( or better) confident annual return rate.I think, the above two share many common objectives and practices such as: learning new trading models; calibrating existing algorithms; bridging the academic financial theories with day to day trading activities and form a profitable solution that actually works.I think, if I were to be a pure phd student, I might be spending 5 years on some topic that is very poorly appreciated by the industry, I might walk out school being overly theoretical but not knowing the reality of the industry, etc.I think, if I were to be focusing solely on building such trading firm, I probably need to spend substantial time on learning and adapting other successful quantitative strategies, I probably need to spend a lot of time on coding these strategies. All those learning and implementations could potentially be used to contribute toward a pdD thesis. I think, between the above two objectives, there is somewhere very interesting and exciting that I wish to get into. And hopefully, I will have an exciting direction of research and development, then obtaining a phd degree within it, and I will pray that I turn it into some solid trading performances as I steer along the journey. Your comments are greatly appreciated. Could you also suggest a direction or subject or trading algorithm that could lead to high annual return? I prefer algorithmic trading/robotic trading/frequency trading.I decided to invest in real estate of 10000 sq. foot in total office space in the financial district. I have a dream of building a firm in there 3 years later when I have enough knowledge and expertise of looking after it.Thank you for considering.

You're 5 days late for April fools

If trading s a zero-sum game, the world needs more people like you

you can take a look at www.hfrx.com to get an idea of some typical hedge fund returns and strategies, and maybe ask them nicely if you can access some of the data in their database. your target return of 150% is ambitious unless you're a hacker and play merger arb. p.s. i am playing a strategy called greek-roulette, basically it's writing OTM put options on financial institutions, ytd return of 40%. you should try it once.

Your first year in a PhD will be trying to design trading strategies.Your second year in a PhD will be reading about the myriad ways of testing trading strategies, measuring risk, examining markets, testing correlations, learing about models ...Your final year in a PhD will be desperately trying to get stuff published, virtually unrelated to trading strategies.If, in year 1, you design a great trading strategy, you will skip years 2 and 3.I am in my final year.