Act II · 2010–2013

The Hedge Fund Nobody Asked For

Real fund. Real K-1s. Real losses. A million-dollar education in humility, delivered by the market with zero grace period.

By 2010, Glen was all in. Not in the “I read a Warren Buffett book” way. In the “E-Trade alerts firing at 4 AM, InvestorsHub posts flying, 9,627 emails sent in a calendar year” way.

Nobody asked him to start a hedge fund. No institutional investor was banging on the door. No Wharton MBA had blessed the thesis. But Glen had a laptop, a conviction problem, and the absolute certainty that he was right about everything.

He was not right about everything.

The Timeline of a Very Expensive Education

2010

All In

E-Trade alerts firing. InvestorsHub posts flying. 9,627 emails sent. Glen was living and breathing the markets from a laptop screen, and nobody had asked him to.

9,627 emails

2011

Global Speculation LP

Founded a real hedge fund. Not a paper portfolio. Not a Discord group. A real fund with real K-1s, convertible notes, and preferred stock certificates. Three vintages. The IRS knew his name.

3 fund vintages

2012

Yellow Media & Michael May

The restructuring play. Glen fumbled the main trade but came out well owning the preferred stock. Michael May was the name attached to the thesis. This was the tutorial level — learn to lose small before you lose big.

Tutorial level

2013

Peak Networking & Peak Losses

15,544 emails. 'Introduction - Glen Bradford' hitting inboxes at Gladstone, Blackstone, and dozens of firms. Running Global Speculation III LP. The fund imploded. Lost a million dollars. Tuition paid.

15,544 emails

Global Speculation LP: A Love Letter to Hubris

The Paperwork Was Real

This was not a Robinhood screenshot fund. Global Speculation LP had K-1 tax forms. Convertible notes. Preferred stock certificates. Three separate vintages. Glen filed with the state, dealt with securities law, and learned more about compliance than investing. The IRS absolutely knew his name.

The Cold Emails

Subject line: “Introduction - Glen Bradford”. Sent to Gladstone Capital. Blackstone. Dozens of firms. Most never replied. Some did. None invested. 2013 was the peak networking year: 15,544 emails. That is not a typo. That is forty-two emails a day, every day, for a year.

The Implosion

The fund lost a million dollars. Not in a dramatic single-day blowup. In the slow, grinding way that bad positions die — death by a thousand paper cuts of conviction. Global Speculation III LP was the last vintage. Tuition: paid. Diploma: a very expensive understanding of what not to do.

The Michael May Tutorial Level

Yellow Media was a Canadian directory company going through a restructuring. Michael May was the name on the thesis. Glen fumbled the restructuring itself — misread the timeline, misread the play — but came out well by owning the preferred stock.

In hindsight, this was the tutorial level. The game was teaching him how restructuring works, how preferred stock behaves in distress, and how to survive being wrong about the thing you were right about. These lessons would matter enormously when Fanniegate arrived.

“Every boss fight has a tutorial version first. This was mine.”

Act As If: A Book Written in the Wreckage

After losing a million dollars, Glen did what any reasonable person would do: he wrote a book and called it a New York Times Bestseller on page one.

Why? Because, and this is a direct quote from the manuscript: “THIS IS BECAUSE I CAN.”

He put blank pages in the middle on purpose. Not as an artistic statement. Not as some publishing gimmick. He just wanted blank pages in there. Nobody stopped him because nobody was in charge of stopping him.

Act As If is part autobiography, part manifesto, part challenge. It is the document of someone who lost everything, decided that was fine, and started writing down rules for the next attempt.

What Act II Actually Taught

01Conviction without risk management is just expensive optimism.
02Sending 42 emails a day does not make you a networker. It makes you a spammer with ambition.
03Preferred stock in distressed situations is a real edge — if you understand the capital structure.
04Losing a million dollars is survivable. Not learning from it is not.
05Calling your book a NYT Bestseller on page one is either delusional or a power move. Glen still has not decided.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was Global Speculation LP?

Global Speculation LP was a hedge fund founded by Glen Bradford in 2011. It ran three vintages (I, II, and III), issued K-1 tax forms, convertible notes, and preferred stock certificates. The fund ultimately lost approximately one million dollars before being wound down.

What happened with Yellow Media?

Glen invested in Yellow Media during a corporate restructuring. He fumbled the restructuring trade itself but came out well by owning the preferred stock. He considers this the tutorial level before his much larger Fannie Mae position.

What is Act As If?

Act As If is a book Glen Bradford wrote after losing a million dollars running his hedge fund. He called it a New York Times Bestseller on page one because, in his words, 'THIS IS BECAUSE I CAN.' The book contains intentionally blank pages in the middle. It is part autobiography, part manifesto, and part challenge.

How many emails did Glen send during this period?

Glen sent 9,627 emails in 2010 and peaked at 15,544 emails in 2013. He sent cold outreach emails titled 'Introduction - Glen Bradford' to firms including Gladstone Capital, Blackstone, and dozens of other investment firms.

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The Book