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

A wild journey

Tim takes you through his life in college when he turned $12.000 into $1.65 million.

Tim did a great job writing this, giving you in detail how his life was like when he started trading. You won't learn trading from this book, but it will give you a great insight in the life of Tim Sykes in college and onwards.

Trust Score

3.2

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

Good Read! Not alot of trading info

Tim basically shows you how he made is fortune betting big when he was younger. Great story, but not the best for learning how to trade

Trust Score

3.5

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

An entertaining and honest book

I've been following Tim's work for the last couple of months I just finished reading this book a couple of minutes ago. I must say i've always been interested in stock trading but never had time or guts to start with it until i stumbled upon Tim and everything he does and decided to take action since he is been such a motivation for me.

This is the first book in series of finance/trading books i intend to read and I must say i really enjoyed it from the start to the end. It's well written an honest journey of Tim Sykes that's both entertaining and educational. Absorb his knowledge and learn from his many mistakes he did.

The last book chapter sums it all, the most inspirational piece of the book at least for me that gives more than enough motivation to carry on with my trading journey and hopefully i will be able to learn from Tim through his challenge.

p.s. Now i also get where the inspiration for a profit.ly came from :)

Trust Score

3.4

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

An entertaining and honest book about a kid's odyssey

A book about the wild journey of a whiz kid who made a fortune trading penny stocks while still in college. Tim writes just as he speaks: forcefully, challenging, and shoots the words out with a lightning speed. His style might seem some people a bit too pushy but that's what makes him Tim Sykes. He spares no secrets, writes honestly and compelling. You will learn a ton about the side of Wall Street that few of the "smart money" have interest in and maybe it's for the benefit of the small traders.

I recommend the book, seeing as you will see the place everyone has written about in the last century from a completely different angle and you'll find out that with lots of hard work, dedication and immense amounts of luck everything is achievable.

Trust Score

1.0

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

If you need something to read

This is a book about how Tim Sykes took 12k and turned into a 1.65million, which is nothing short of astounding. You will learn that he was never a good trader but a good stock picker. He bet big and won/loss big. You are really not going to get much out of it then just how he did it.

So this is a good book if you have nothing else to read or love Sykes.

Trust Score

6.2

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

The best book I ever read about hedge-fund

First, I must say that I received this book thanks to http://investimonials.com and my ivBucks.

Second, the book is very well written: Tim Sykes’ style is lively and precise. Maybe because the publisher is not mainstream, there is no typo, no mistake, no blatant error. Usually, in finance books (and in other areas), even the second edition is full of little errors. That’s not the case here. Congratulations to BullShip Press!

This book is easy to read, entertaining, and inspiring. I read the 236 pages in 2 sittings. Tim gives a lot of himself in this work: far from the marketing technics he usually used, here, you can read an open-heart and open-brain Tim. The truth is so beautiful.

The story told is amazing. However, I feel connected to Tim because I had the same path in the hedge-fund management industry. Even if my fund was 20 times bigger than Cilantro and if my firm had up to 6 professionals on the payroll, I experienced the same issues and discovered the same weird practices. This sector is not efficient and the cost to operate is prohibitive. The regulations make things worse.

Read this book: you will learn a lot about a trader’s mind.

Last point: Performance numbers are given in arithmetic average. According to me (and commun practice), it is not fair. Personnal account average should be +273% (instead of +323%) and Cilantro average should be +4% (instead of +6%).

Trust Score

7.7

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

It was ok!

It was a great story of how someone made a ton of money in the dot com bubble by taking big risks.

I was looking more for a book on the life of a hedge fund trader. Something similar to Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle. Maybe this is the main reason why it is seemed just ok for me!

Trust Score

1.0

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

Great Book about a successful penny stock trader!

There really aren't that many successful penny stock traders out there. This is a great story about someone who was in the right place at the right time. And took full advantage of the tech bubble... if only i was trading stocks back then!

Trust Score

4.4

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

"Good Read"

It is definitely a very interesting story that will keep you turning the pages till the very end. It is very well written and reader friendly. There was never a dull moment throughout, I read the entire book in one sitting. I was a little disappointed tho when i read how Tim actually made his millions. He never really had a real strategy or technique and absolutely no money management. He just kinda threw his money at a stock and it went up. It was more like gambling than trading. He was at the right place at the right time and got lucky like many others did during the dot com bubble. This book just kinda confirms what Tim himself has been saying all along "I'm not that good a trader". That still doesn't take away from the book tho and i gotta give him props for finding a niche strategy that worked for him.

Trust Score

6.7

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

Better than I expected

I had read quite a bit about timothy sykes before finding this book and when I stumbled upon it I was very intrigued to read it. Come to find out it was pretty entertaining. Being a new investor it helped me realize that to be successful you have to start somewhere and tim did just that.

Trust Score

2.0

User’s Review Ratings

Overall