This is the story of how a young man turned his bar mitzvah money into a Million dollars and then started a hedge fund. Frustrated with how hard it is to get a new hedge fund off the ground and find investors due to SEC regulations Mr. Sykes wrote a book about his story. The book paints a picture of how a young student became enamored with the stock markets and was able to understand trends in stock prices which enabled him to make money his peers only dreamed of.
About the Author
Timothy is a 27 year old investor. He is the benefactor of a Tulane Scholarship, runs timothysykes.com and is a writer for AOL Finance. He detailed his step by step investing process on timothysykes.com giving the world an inside look at how a hedge fund manager operates. For more detailed information check out his About Page.
The Short of it
Timothy started out in life with an entrepreneurial attitude and a drive to succeed. He moved his drive to the stock markets and during the tech bubble was able to ride the rise of well chosen penny stocks to make a healthy chunk of change. When the bubble burst and the plays got few and far between he went from his old methodology to the world of short selling. After achieving success in the short selling world Mr. Sykes started his own hedge fund and searched high an low for investors. The search was hindered by SEC regulations preventing him from advertising his fund to anyone but the most affluent. The details show how an investor with a knack for predicting market trends went from huge returns to making a single life altering decision that cost him dearly.
What it is
An American Hedgefund is a life story of how one person got started in trading and then started his own hedge fund. I think that is why I enjoyed reading it so much. I don’t have any stock trading experience and this book really allowed me to see how these “day traders” really operate. Mr. Sykes does an excellent job of portraying how things happened to setup his eventual fall from being one of the top performers out there. If you know little about investing, short selling, and hedge funds you are certain to have a better understanding of it when you finish reading this story.
What it is not
This is not a guide on investing or short selling. If you are looking to learn how to read charts and track and trend stock prices this is not the book you are looking for. It provides only a high level view of what Timothy did on his individual trades not in depth analysis of each trade and what he looked for. This book tells you how he started his hedge fund and the obstacles he encountered in trying to get investors. If you are looking for an investment guide, go look elsewhere.
Final Thoughts, and a thanks!
The driving force for this book was to educate people about the hedge fund industry and how it is not as bad as the media portrays it to be. With hedge fund Pequot shutting its doors yesterday the media has again started to focus on this little understood area of investing. I would, and have already, recommended this book to others interested in gaining an understanding of the hedge fund industry and what drives these investors to make the decisions they do. Two key points everyone should take away from this book are 1.) Discipline is key, without out it you are certain to fail, and 2.) Emotions make you broke, check them at the door.
Special thanks to Patrick from Cash Money Life, I won this book in one of his giveaways, look for me to re-gift it next week in another contest.
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