I first came across Timothy Sykes about 6 months ago on some blog post about making money online. I read about how he had turned $12,415 of Bar Mitzvah gift money into $1.65 million trading stocks from 1999 to 2002. In 2007, he decided to give it another go and prove he could repeat his rags to riches feat.
I bought into the hype, of course, and subscribed to receive his Tim Alerts letting me know what plays he saw coming each day and what moves he made. Finally after watching one of his Friday Livestock broadcasts on the Internet, I decided to see if I could actually make a go of what he was teaching and ordered up his Pennystocking DVD course. I didn’t know it came with his book (I had no idea he even had a book published).
When I cracked open the package, I really didn’t think much of the book. To be honest, I thought it looked a little cheesy and I had no interest in hedge funds. For some reason, though I picked it up and started reading. I was hooked by the end of the first chapter.
Now I buy quite a few books, but I don’t tend to read too many of them. All part of my information collector problem. So it’s rare that I have a book I can’t put down, but I literally could NOT put this down. I read the whole thing in a few days, staying up until 1am and 2am reading.
His recount of the early days of his trading career and some of the huge plays he made was awe striking and inspiring. I couldn’t believe that a high schooler could be so resourceful and driven to learn as much as Tim did in such a short period of time.
The “How much did Tim make today?” game with his college roommate and making $123,000 on a trade which, because of slow executions neted him an extra $10,000 almost seem to good to be true. Then to hear him recount his story about starting his hedge fund and the roller coaster ride was very interesting as well.
Although a lot of people mention disappointment or wanting more out of the book, I was pleasantly surprised and will not hesitate to recommend Tim’s book to anyone interested in investing. I found it funny, inspiring and full of little “don’t repeat my mistakes” principles hidden throughout.
Order the book from Amazon here:
An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund