DM is a lot of things, I doubt that stupid is one of them. With 1.5 billion, the question is not can you do 50% in a year's time, the question is can you do that much in a month's time. You should be able to double a large portfolio in a year's time with the dividend capture strategy alone. Then there is such a thing as covered calls on blue chip stocks. Real easy ... you purchase some stocks that will always be able to weather the storm, ones that are plugged into the system. You buy when they are at a fire sale price. You then sell the call options, way out of the money, where no way do you get called out. You make a conservative 3% to 5% per month on that.
Now most of the folks here who are reading this are more saavy than most, but, have you really taken the time to examine the nuts and bolts of how certain things work? Most folks are clueless. For example ... the air conditioner compressor on the wife-mobile blew out recently. There were ongoing problems with that car ... there were belt noises, I kept spraying belt dressing. Finally the belt derailed, and I fixed that. Then there were pulley noises. I tossed in a new belt tensioner and idler pulley. Still there were noises. Then the weather got warmer, but the car air conditioner wasn't performing like it should. I tried charging it with refrigerant, but, that wasn't the problem. I told the wife that the A/C compressor would probably need to be replaced, and, that I would do that job myself, but I would need to read up on that a bit and pick a weekend where she wouldn't be needing the car. Instead, the A/C compressor went totally FUBAR, seizing up and snapping the serpentine belt. The car had to be towed. I had to hack a learning curve, had to replace a power steering pump as well, had to learn the hard way to bypass removing the power steering pump pulley and just pull the entire assy. including the power steering pump bracket instead. Then I learned that when you toss in a power steering pump, you have to work the air out of the system since there is no low bleed point to get a nice solid hydraulic system, like with brakes. I made a shitload of goofs along the way, but, I got the job done. In many respects it would have been better to just allow the shop monkeys at Firestone do the job for their exorbitant price. But, I learned. I now know what I am doing with this particular job, I know the nuts and bolts of it. I hacked the learning curve. Phug that phuggen car, it didn't beat me.
Why did I digress? Besides the quadruple rum and coke I just chugged ... to let you know, that is what I am talking about ... nuts and bolts. Understanding a concept is one thing, the nuts and bolts of it all are another. What I am saying is this ... when you are dealing with a 1.5 billion dollar account, it comes with its own nuts and bolts, and, it comes with its own set of mechanics that specialize in the nuts and bolts of an account that size. One thing you are NOT interested in doing with an account that size is scalping ... if you had an account of a few hundred grand, you might be able to make 10% per week OR MORE with constant little day trades. You are ALSO not interested in just "buy and hold". You are big enough that you don't want to be totally into just one market or dependent upon a single currency. Furthermore, you are definitely not interested in just buying bonds. One thing that folks don't know about banking ... what the reserve requirement means. If I have a billion dollars and I run a bank, at a 10% reserve requirement, that 1 billion is my reserve and I can loan out 9 BILLION ... that is, money I don't have ... keeping the 1 billion in reserve, and the rest was CREATED VIA THE SIGNATURE OF THE BORROWERS. When the borrower signed off and I signed off, we agreed ... I acceped the borrower's signature and promise to pay AS HAVING VALUE, and what he owed me BECAME MY ASSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bottom line ... people with that kind of money routinely see 50% per year or more ROI as well. It's not like they have to mine gold out of the ground and breaking their backs to do it. The funny money system works in your favor at some point. It only works against those who work for a living. If you work for a living you are always too busy to make any money anyways, and that includes hacking the learning curves and understanding the nuts and bolts.
Pete