An American Hedge Fund

Some of you might know that before I started to work on my current Startup ideas, I was a part time Stock and Index Options trader trading my own small account. I’ve still been keeping up with the financial news and happenings out there as I am always keeping an eye on the market for my eventual return with more capital one day.

While trading, I’ve come across many personalities and resources. One of my favorite personalities happens to be Timothy Sykes. I first learn of Tim when he appeared in Trader Magazine’s Best 30 under 30 edition crowning the 30 best young traders under 30 years old.  Next I saw him on CNBC as a guest.  Then Tim followed up with all of that with a 6 episode reality series called “Wall Street Warriors” in which he was one of the stars, and arguably the most interesting.

Tim turned 12K of his own money into 1.7MM while still in college, shorting highly volatile micro cap stocks.  Tim later on launched his own hedge fund and the TV series showed him participating in the cat and mouse game of fund raising.  As a former aspiring hedge fund manager myself, I totally understand what Tim went through and I admire his enthusiasm and go getter attitude.  Tim is a true entrepreneur in every sense of the word, and i see many similarities b/t us although we take opposite promotional approaches.

Needless to say, I am a big fan of Timothy and was happy that he wrote a book chronicling his experience in the cut throat world of hedge funds from the little guy’s perspective.  Although ultimately the difficulty of raising funds is the main down fall of Tim’s Cilantro Fund closing, the book showcase many insider look at the hedge fund business.  Tim is moving forward with his entrepreneurial endeavors with a self publishing company and published a very entertaining and informative book titled “An American Hedge Fund.”   I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading it from cover to cover and had this bookbeen available when I was trading, I might have avoided many mistakes I made.  If you have any interest in trading the market, or launching your own business in general, this book is a MUST READ in my opinion.  It is available now on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0979549701/timothysykes-20

Whatever the future holds, I am sure Timothy will tackle it with the same intensity and commitment he had shown in his hedge fund business, and perhaps one day there will be opportunity for us to collaborate on things.  I highly recommend the book and I hope you will too.

Disclaimer:  This is NOT a paid writeup or review.  I chose to write about it because I truly believe it is a book worthy of reading by any entrepreneur that aspire to succeed in his/her own discipline.  It helped me with certain aspect of my startup and I hope it’ll help yours as well.