Book Contest and Review: An American Hedge Fund by Timothy Sykes

A few months ago I received an email from Tim Skyes with an offer to review his book that was going to be released in October, needless to say I took the offer and here is my official review. He sent me a draft and final copy. If you want a copy I'll send one to you, just comment on this post with the reason why you deserve the book. Be sure to leave a way to contact you. With further ado here we go.

Rating 4/5

The author and main character of this book is Tim Sykes a young guy, he's still under 30, who was able to make a lot of money very quickly in the stock market trading penny stocks. Tim was a millionaire by the time he was 22. The writing style is very easy to read and the book moves fast. It takes you through his senior year of high school through college to the present. The basic story goes like this: he was very competitive in athletics namely tennis, and applied his tenacity and focused his energies on making money. He talks about his love of collecting baseball cards a hobby shared by many. He then took a big risk, a common trait of many entrepreneurs, by taking a little over $12,000 and invested it in the stock market. He takes you through various ups and downs, trading feverously during the age of dotcom companies. He points out trends and patterns he learned and profitted from. His fortune grew and grew, and he improved, eventually he accumulates over 1.5 million dollars in a three year span, incredible! Then he didn't stop there. He learned as much as he could about the elusive hedge fund industry and created his own called the Cilantro Fund. The thing I really like about this book is that it really encourages you to learn more about the stock market and push yourself to grow. It was inspirational for me and I want to share that with you.

If you are interested in purchasing the book you can get it at here at Amazon or comment for a chance to win a free copy.




I had the opportunity to ask Tim a few questions which he was kind enough to answer.

> Who are some of the people that motivated you?

Jesse Livermore, Winston Churchill, JD Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Bernard
Baruch--yes, they are all from a different age, but it's an age that I
think we need to bring back. Not surprisingly, I learned all about these
characters from their auto/biographies, all of which I have posted in my
collection of 300 finance/business books in the 'Library' section of
http://www.timothysykes.com. Reading is FUNdamental!

> What's it like living in NYC?

Incredible; there are so many amazing people to meet, expensive items I
want to buy that encourage me to work harder, great food to make me fatter
and girls to....well, you get the point :)

> What do you see for your future, say 5 years from now?

My book will have inspired an entire generation to take up our true
national sport, finance and also inspired the ultra-secretive hedge fund
industry to be more transparent before it's too late; I'll have my own late
night comedy/business TV show that will show that businesspeople aren't as
boring as the rest of the world seems to believe and my just released
6-Hour instructional DVD "PennyStocking" will have shown people that Penny
Stocks are nothing to be afraid of/ much better odds than casinos and this
market's newfound popularity will have made the market even more liquid and
volatile which will have increased the number of trading opportunities
available to all. Also, the Dow will be over 25,000.

> Any advice to younger people who are interesting in plunging into the
> stock
> market?

Learn about all investment strategies and industries, no matter what some
narrow minded people say. Contrary to popular belief, value and growth
investing are not the only ways to make real money and in fact, if you're
willing to take on some additional risk, those strategies may actually harm
you in your attempt to become wealthy. There are soooooooo many strategies
out there, you're bound to find one that you will excel at. If you find you
don't excel at any, then pack up and see what else you like to do. For
example, I never thought I'd willingly give up managing my hedge fund, but
I've found teaching and helping others to be more fulfilling so I traded
careers. I've received a lot of criticism, but who cares---I'm doing what I
love and hopefully I'll be able to earn a living doing it.

> Heard you met up with Neville a little while ago what did you guys do?


>

Yeah that guy is really cool, we got along great. We just drank a few beers
and talked for a while. We were gonna party it up at the Traitor Monthly
'Top 30 under 30' party the next day, but I got disinvited at the last
minute (hence my nickname for the magazine). Anyway, I love talking with
fellow young entrepreneurs because we really need to share ideas and learn
from each other's experiences. So anybody who wants to chat, go to
http://www.timothysykes.com and drop me a line. This isn't an act, I really
am all about learning and sharing, and the lack of these qualities in the
hedge fund industry is really what made me leave.