Frequently asked questions.
Forty-plus answers, written by the people who actually do the work, covering every question we have heard in the past decade. Use the sections below to jump to what you need.
Getting started
What is a managed account, and how is it different from a fund?
A managed account is held in your own name at a third-party regulated broker. We have authority to place trades on your behalf, but only you can deposit or withdraw. In a pooled fund, your money is commingled with other investors' capital; in a managed account, your capital is yours alone, fully segregated, and visible to you in real time through your broker's portal.
What is the minimum investment to open an account?
Standard minimums are $50,000 for our single-strategy programmes (Quant Crypto Alpha and Crypto Core) and $100,000 for the Balanced Allocation programme. We can occasionally accept smaller introductory accounts from $10,000 for new clients who want to evaluate the service before committing the full minimum.
How long does the onboarding process take?
Typically five business days from your signed engagement letter to your first live trade. The process: KYC/AML documents, broker-account opening (or transfer of an existing account), advisory agreement signature, and a final account-control verification call. Complex jurisdictions or trust structures may extend the timeline.
Can I start with a smaller amount to evaluate the service?
Yes. We routinely encourage prospective clients to start with the introductory minimum and scale up after one to two full reporting cycles. This lets you experience our reporting, drawdown behaviour, and team communication before committing meaningful capital.
What documents do I need to provide to open an account?
Government-issued photo identification, proof of address dated within the last three months, source-of-wealth declaration, and (for entities) constitutional documents and beneficial-ownership details. For US residents, additional accreditation evidence may be required.
Custody and security
Where exactly is my money held?
In your own name at a third-party regulated broker that you choose. Bostock Capitals never takes possession of client cash or assets. You have full deposit and withdrawal authority; we have trade-only authority that you can revoke at any time.
Can Bostock Capitals withdraw money from my account?
No. Our authority is limited to placing trades. The broker requires your authentication for any movement of cash or assets. This is a structural safeguard, not a policy commitment that could change later.
Is my money or my crypto insured?
Cash balances at most regulated brokers carry the protection of the relevant deposit-insurance scheme (FDIC in the United States up to applicable limits, FSCS in the United Kingdom, similar schemes elsewhere). Digital-asset holdings are not covered by any deposit-insurance scheme anywhere. We disclose this explicitly because it matters.
What happens to my money if Bostock Capitals ceases to operate?
Your account remains where it is, at your broker, in your name. Our trading authority would cease, but your capital and any open positions would be entirely yours to manage, transfer, or liquidate. This is the structural advantage of the managed-account model over a pooled fund.
What happens if my broker fails?
Brokerage protections vary by jurisdiction. In most regulated markets, client assets are segregated from the broker's own balance sheet and protected by an industry compensation scheme up to a defined limit. We require all client-side brokers to meet a minimum standard of regulation and capital adequacy before we will operate accounts with them.
How are my crypto assets stored and secured?
Digital assets in client accounts are held by the broker, typically using institutional-grade qualified custodians with cold-storage majorities, multi-signature controls, and insurance against custodian misconduct. We do not hold private keys or wallets on behalf of clients.
Fees
What fees do you charge?
A single performance fee of 20 per cent of net profits, calculated above a high-water mark. We do not charge a management fee, setup fee, or exit fee. If your account does not make money in a given period, we do not earn a fee for that period.
How is the performance fee calculated, and when?
It is calculated on net trading gains above your account's previous all-time high (the high-water mark), accrued monthly, and paid quarterly. You only pay performance fees on new profits, never on a recovery from a drawdown.
What is a high-water mark, and why does it matter?
The high-water mark is your account's historical peak equity value. The performance fee only applies to gains above this level. If your account experiences a drawdown, you owe no performance fee until your equity recovers and surpasses the previous high. This protects you from paying fees twice on the same gains.
Are there setup, management, or exit fees?
No. No setup fee, no annual management fee, no exit penalty, no notice period for withdrawal. The 20 per cent performance fee is the only fee we charge.
Are there any pass-through expenses I should know about?
Brokerage commissions, exchange fees, financing costs on leveraged positions, and statement-related fees from your broker pass through to your account in the normal course of trading. These are not paid to Bostock Capitals; they are paid to your broker and the relevant exchanges. We monitor them and route through the lowest-cost available execution.
Strategy and risk
What is your investment strategy in plain English?
We run systematic, rules-based strategies in crypto and digital-asset markets. The rules were developed over years of research, are constantly monitored, and execute without human emotion. A portfolio manager supervises every signal before it reaches the market. Our edge is process discipline, not market prediction.
What returns should I realistically expect?
We do not quote a return target on this page because it is meaningless without context. On the discovery call we walk through realistic return ranges for each programme, the volatility you should expect, and the drawdowns you may have to sit through. Any manager who promises a specific return without that context is one to walk away from.
What has been your maximum historical drawdown?
Specific drawdown numbers, by programme and by period, are shared under NDA with qualified prospective clients in our verified performance pack. We share both the worst single-period drawdown and the average drawdown across the live track record, alongside the time it took to recover.
How do you manage risk?
Through five layers: pre-trade position-sizing rules that adjust for current volatility, equity-stop automation that suspends trading at your client-defined floor, supervised execution where a portfolio manager reviews every signal, independent risk oversight by a CRO who sits outside the trading team, and continuous out-of-sample validation that pauses signals when their live performance diverges from expected.
What is the worst-case scenario for my account?
A worst-case scenario is breaching your equity stop. If that happens, the system suspends trading automatically, we notify you the same day, and we walk you through what occurred. You decide whether to resume trading. We never resume trading on your account without your written authorisation.
What happens if my account hits the drawdown stop level?
Trading suspends automatically. You receive an alert by email and phone, normally within minutes. Open positions are typically closed in an orderly fashion. We then schedule a call to review what happened, walk through the strategy attribution, and discuss whether to resume, adjust the stop level, or close the account. The decision is yours.
Reporting and communication
How often will I receive statements?
Monthly written statements with attribution commentary, sent within ten business days of month-end. Live position and P&L data is available 24/7 through your broker's portal. Quarterly we send a longer review pack covering programme-level attribution and our outlook.
Can I see my account in real time?
Yes. All trade execution happens at your broker and is visible immediately in their portal. You can monitor balance, equity, open positions, and full transaction history any time, on any device, independently of us.
How do I contact my account manager?
By email, phone, or scheduled call. Your investor relations contact answers within one business day, usually faster. For account-specific issues, you will also have a direct line to your portfolio management team.
Do you provide tax reports?
We provide an annual realised-gains summary that your tax adviser can use to prepare your filings. In most jurisdictions your broker also generates the official tax forms (1099, P60-equivalent, etc.). We do not provide tax advice; we provide the data your tax adviser needs.
Withdrawals and liquidity
Can I withdraw my money at any time?
Yes. You retain full withdrawal authority over your account. There is no lockup, no notice period, and no exit fee.
How long do withdrawals take?
Withdrawals follow your broker's standard settlement times: typically one to three business days for cash, longer for assets that need to be liquidated first. We can coordinate the timing with you if you would like positions closed in an orderly manner before withdrawal.
Can I withdraw only part of my account?
Yes. Partial withdrawals do not affect your high-water mark or your continued participation in the strategy. The remaining capital continues to be managed under the same terms.
Eligibility and jurisdiction
Who can invest with Bostock Capitals?
Qualifying individuals, family offices, and institutions in the jurisdictions where our services are available. Some jurisdictions impose an accreditation or sophistication test; some impose minimum income or net-worth thresholds; some restrict the products we can offer. We confirm your eligibility on the discovery call before any commitment is required.
Which jurisdictions do you serve?
We actively serve clients across the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Switzerland. Other jurisdictions are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and may be subject to local regulatory restrictions.
Are your services available in the United States?
Yes, to qualifying US investors who meet the relevant accreditation or qualified-purchaser thresholds. Specific product availability for US persons depends on your accreditation status, residence state, and intended account size. We confirm eligibility individually.
Do I need to be an accredited investor or qualified purchaser?
Some products and structures we offer are limited to investors who meet local accreditation standards (accredited investor or qualified purchaser in the United States, sophisticated investor in the United Kingdom and Singapore, professional client under MiFID in the EU). We let you know which products you are eligible for as part of the onboarding review.
The firm
Where is Bostock Capitals incorporated and regulated?
Bostock Capitals is registered in the Cayman Islands. The registered office is at Ugland House, 121 South Church Street, George Town, Grand Cayman KY1-1104. Cayman is one of the most established jurisdictions globally for offshore investment management entities, with a developed regulatory and legal infrastructure including the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.
Who is your fund administrator?
We work with an independent third-party fund administrator for net-asset-value calculation, statement production, and investor reporting. Specific administrator details are disclosed under NDA as part of the due-diligence package.
Who is your auditor?
We engage a recognised auditing firm with experience in alternative-asset and digital-asset structures. The audit is conducted annually. The auditor is named in the due-diligence package shared with qualified prospects.
How long have you been in business?
Bostock Capitals was founded in 2013. Our flagship algorithm went live in 2019 and has been trading continuously since. We have served clients across more than a dozen countries over that period.
Who runs the firm day to day?
The leadership team is profiled on our About page. Briefly: a founder and managing principal, head of quantitative research, head of portfolio management, chief risk officer (independent of the trading desk), head of investor relations, and head of technology.
Tax and legal
What are the tax implications of investing with you?
Tax treatment depends entirely on your tax residence, the legal structure you invest through, and the assets you hold. We can not summarise this for every client because the variation is wide. Our annual realised-gains report is designed to be fed directly to a tax adviser in any major jurisdiction.
Do you provide tax advice?
No. We provide the data your tax adviser needs. We can introduce you to tax specialists with experience in cross-border investment structures if you do not already have one.
What KYC/AML documents will I need to provide?
Government-issued photo identification, proof of address (utility bill or bank statement) within three months, source-of-wealth declaration, and for non-natural-person clients the relevant constitutional documents and beneficial-ownership disclosures. We follow the documentation standards of our broker and the regulators in the jurisdictions where we operate.
What if my situation changes, do I need to tell you?
Yes. Material changes in your tax residence, accreditation status, source of funds, or beneficial ownership should be reported to us promptly so we can update your file. This is a regulatory obligation as well as a practical one.
Digital-asset specifics
Which digital assets do you trade?
Primarily Bitcoin and Ethereum, plus a defined universe of large-cap digital-asset pairs that meet our liquidity and counterparty standards. We do not trade speculative low-cap tokens, governance tokens of unproven protocols, or any token whose primary backing is not verifiable.
Do you trade on decentralised exchanges?
No. All client trading happens on regulated, custodied centralised venues that pass our broker-eligibility review. The smart-contract risk on decentralised venues is not appropriate for client capital under our mandate.
What about staking, yield farming, and DeFi?
We do not engage in staking, yield farming, or DeFi protocols on client accounts. The risk profile of those activities is different from the systematic trading mandate our clients have engaged us for, and the counterparty / smart-contract risks are difficult to size against.
How do you handle market events like a major exchange failure?
Our broker-eligibility review excludes venues with material counterparty concerns. If a broker we use shows signs of distress, we move accounts to alternative venues. Our stablecoin-monitoring rule (described in our insights piece) gives us an automated early warning on the broader market.
If we have not covered it here, ask us directly.
We respond personally to every question, usually within one business day. No bots, no canned replies.