I recently updated my “about” page to something more fitting:
I had a slightly different college experience: skipping classes in favor of trading penny stocks every day, I turned $12,415 in Bar Mitzvah gift money into $2 million and started a hedge fund during my senior year. I also created a scholarship for talented/passionate people open not only to current Tulane students, but also Tulane faculty and alumni…an economic bailout ahead of its time.
My hedge fund went on to become the #1 ranked short bias fund by Barclays for 3 years and I was named to Trader Monthly’s ‘Top 30 Under 30′ in 2006, but my trading strategy was never very scalable (meaning it’s much easier for me to make $10,000 than it is $10 million) and my fund lost 35% when I tried investing instead of trading.
Infinitely wiser but embarrassed and depressed, a TV producer asked me to make an appearance in his upcoming documentary “Wall Street Warriors”…I had lost my confidence and credibility so I said sure and ended up starring in 5 of the 6 episodes of the hit first season, which you can watch on Hulu, now having aired in 14 countries and followed by 2 more seasons (Wall Street Warriors Season 3 was filmed but as of early 2010 has not aired).
The show’s popularity inspired hundreds of daily emails from fans wanting to know more about me and my trading strategy, but as a hedge fund manager, I was not allowed to answer any of them. So I said “screw you!” to the restricted hedge fund industry, wrote openly about my experiences in my best-selling autobiography “An American Hedge Fund” and started a publishing company to create brutally honest & educational financial newsletters and instructional DVD packages.
I’ve been featured by every major business and financial media outlet, but I am infinitely prouder of having returned to my $12,415 Bar Mitzvah gift money roots, intent on repeating my feat of turning that into $1.65 million, this time detailing every step of the way on this website.
2,200 blog posts and 27 months into this challenge, my account has surged to $115,551, already providing you with a rough blueprint of how to turn $12k into $100k in 2 years and making me the #1 ranked trader out of 45,000+ on Covestor, a website which verifies trades and performance…and nearly 1/5 of the top traders are my TIMalert subscribers and PennyStocking DVD students!
Battling against those in finance who misinform and lie, I’ve made enemies with soulless penny stock promoters, certain CNBC commentators, penny stock promoters who pretend to be FOX News commentators and wholly imbecilic people like Trader Monthly editor-in-thief Randall Lane who used his press connections to publicly berate me and accuse me of losing $ due to the TV show (ignoring the advance copy of the book I sent him in which I explain what went wrong) (don’t worry, he eventually got what was coming to him).
Below are some good video interviews and you can see how my big mouth and brutal honesty get me into a little trouble:
Before my bio was this:
Timothy Sykes, author of the book, An American Hedge Fund, was born in Orange, Connecticut in 1981. He studied Philosophy and Business at Tulane University while turning his $12,415 Bar Mitzvah Gift money into a fully audited pre-tax sum of $1.65 million from 1999 to 2002 before founding his hedge fund, Cilantro Fund Management, LLC in 2003. He is also the benefactor of a Tulane University Scholarship, The Timothy Sykes Day Trading Award for the Talented that is awarded annually to any deserving Tulane student, faculty, or alumni (now accepting applications for 2009 HERE, deadline is April 17th!)
In 2006, his hedge fund was ranked the #1 Short-Bias Fund by Barclays for 2003-2006 and he was named to Trader Monthly’s 2006 ‘Top 30 under 30′, a list recognizing the top 30 investment professionals under the age of 30.
In late-2007, after suffering a roughly 35% loss over two years, he closed his hedge fund and created a publishing company, BullShip Press, LLC to promote Freedom of Finance, the concept of a hedge fund manager’s right to discuss their business freely without risk of penalty or censorship. Following this thinking, Timothy also introduced TIM, short for Transparent Investment Management, with the goal of repeating his original feat of turning $12,415 into $1.65 million, this time around detailing the step-by-step process on www.timothysykes.com, becoming the first hedge fund manager to openly detail their investment strategies for all to see.
Since the beginning of 2008, Timothy has been the #1 trader/investor, out of 25,000+ on Covestor.com, a website that tracks and verifies all trades, by earning 365% as the overall US stock market dropped 40%. More importantly, nearly 1/4 of the top 100 traders were PennyStocking DVD students or TIMalert subscribers.
He also starred in the TV show, Wall Street Warriors on MOJO, now writes for AOL Finance and has been featured on ABC, CNN, CBS, CNBC, FOX News, FOX Business Network, Reuters, Businessweek, Marketwatch, MSN Money, Yahoo! Finance, TheStreet.com, Realmoney.com, TradingMarkets.com, Consumer’s Digest, YOUNG MONEY Magazine (Nov. 2007 Cover Story), Jewish Living Magazine, Forbes.com, Hedgefund.net, Hedgeco.net, Institutional Investor, WallStrip, Salon.com, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Observer, The New York Daily News, Trader Monthly, Dealbook, Alternative Universe and Absolute Return Magazine.
WHICH DO YOU LIKE BETTER?