An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund
by Timothy Sykes

“…an excellent tell-all story about the truth of setting up, starting and running a Hedge Fund from scratch. A highly entertaining read that should help educate aspiring fund mangers and give them much need guidance to tackle the risks of playing and surviving Wall Street’s fierce game” – Chris Perruna

In addition to the quote I provided for Tim’s blog, I felt the book was highly entertaining and a great read. It flowed and I easily finished it in two sittings and was always eager to start another chapter. I learned several things by reading the book as Tim helped me confirm even further that I probably don’t want to trade as a small fund manager on Wall Street.

I first learned about Tim while watching Wall Street Warriors on the HD channel MOJO. The show was good enough to catch my attention enough to watch the entire series and really get into the stories of each character. Tim went on to write this book and was kind enough to send me an advance copy last summer.

Too many books are boring or lack the meat to grab my attention for 200 or more pages. Tim did a great job at telling his story and keeping the reader interested from chapter to chapter.

An American Hedge Fund is an autobiography about Tim’s venture of trading throughout college and then ultimately forming his own hedge fund after he graduated. He gets into great detail of trading during his college years and then details his experiences within the dark halls and exclusive clubs of the Wall Street money game.

I recommend the book to anyone interested in starting their own private hedge fund or to anyone that would like to hear the story of a college kid that turned $12,415 into $1.65 million in three to four short years. (I can’t say I have made that much to date)

I do have a few cons about the book
(for the readers of this specific, trend trading blog):
Tim was predominately a short trader in college and within his fund. He didn’t exclusively trade short but that was his bread and butter. I have traded short and have covered the topic several times on this blog but my bread and butter are trends on the long side.

Tim focused on trading small penny stocks, which I honestly feel are crap, but that is just my opinion. Regardless of what Tim traded, he was successful and that is the most important moral of the story.

Understand what he was trading and how he did it. I believe Tim is focusing more on money management and a psychological approach as he tries to repeat the feat in his latest endeavor. If I had one suggestion, I would tell Tim to forget about the $12,000 start and get properly capitalized and trade using sound position sizing and expectancy tactics:

TIM – Transparent Investment Management

I’m going back to my Bar Mitzvah Gift Money roots of $12,415 and opening an account with a discount online broker, intent on repeating my feat of turning this small sum into $1.65 million. This time around, my goals are not solely monetary, but to show everyone the process, the successes and failures and the hard work that goes into accomplishing such a feat.

Each night, I will post all my thoughts, investment ideas and trade details on my website TimothySykes.com. This won’t be some highly technical trading talk BS and it certainly won’t be boring – c’mon you know me better than that!

Final Word:
I do recommend the book to anyone that enjoys stories about Wall Street and trading. I can’t honestly say it is the next Reminiscences of a Stock Operator but it is much better than some of the other trash I see on the shelves of Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

I wish Tim the best of success during his current journey of duplicating his trading success from 1999-2002. Please take the time to visit his latest blog and follow along with the success of TIM:
TimothySykes.com