Several months ago, I was approached by Timothy Sykes to do a review of his upcoming book, “An American Hedge Fund“. I accepted and promptly received an autographed uncorrected proof of the book.
Several months ago, I was approached by Timothy Sykes to do a review of his upcoming book, “An American Hedge Fund, is an interesting autobiographical tale of Tim’s trading life, which is relatively short considering he’s only 26. He begins the book by chronicling how he began trading while in High School, using the library’s Internet connection to research his picks.
As a day trader recognizing momentum, hype, and stock chart patterns he moved in and out of positions on a very short-term basis during the Internet boom. In doing so, Tim turned $12,000 in Bar Mitzvah money into an audited, pre tax $1.65 million – before graduating from college.
As the Dot Com bubble bust, Tim adapted by learning how to short stocks, and he successfully made it through the financial aftermath of 9/11.
After four years (1999-2002) of doing this and turning himself into a millionaire, he decided to start his own hedge fund, the Cilantro Fund. He then became disenchanted with the hurdles that hedge funds face when trying to raise capital, and this served as his motivation for writing the book.
Tim and his book have no shortage of critics, but overall, I found the book to be a fascinating and inspiring journey into an often misunderstood industry. Tim is brutally honest in detailing not only his successes but also his many large mistakes and the psychology that led to them. In the early stages of the book I wanted to start day trading, and by the end, I was reminded why I don’t.
It’s not a how to book, but there is certainly wisdom to be gained from his story. If you’d like to decide for yourself, see below for a chance to win your own free copy:
Tim recently sent me the official release version of the book, which actually contains a snippet of my review in the front cover, so I am going to give away the original, signed, book that I received. For your chance to win, simply leave a comment on this post explaining why you’d like to read the book. One random entry will be selected on Monday, November 12.
Your odds of winning should be pretty good. Good Luck.
Update 11/12/07: Carl Hunter won the book.
i had never heard of the guy, but stumbled onto his blog. interesting bio. now gimme the book.
As an avid seeker of knowledge and poor college student, I would love to have the opportunity to read this tale at a bargain. I’m a business student but quickly finding out that Finance may be where my real passion is.
Rarely do hedge fund managers expose thier tricks of the trade. It would be fascinating to see how a self confessed professional acts and thinks differently from us “hobby” traders and learn to emulate his success.
His book and equally his blog is just starting to show how he thinks.
I have read numerous books on investing by the likes of Jim Cramer , Lynch , Andy Kessler ,Phil Town …………..all of them claiming that they will reveal it all and that they want to teach everyone…….blah blah blah….. You know what all the books are not even close to being honest and they are certainly not meant to teach the common masses how to invest . They are only written so that the author can make a lot of money for himself.
Anyways I have been intrigued by all the reviews that I am reading of Tim’s book and I will read it whether I win the book here or not. But it would be nice to have a signed copy for my collection.
Thanks
Mani
I’d love to read the book, I think it would be interesting to see what mistakes he made and how he benefitted from them.
I just recently read the book, and it is a great story…I would highly recommend it. …. I emailed Tim to see if I could get a signed copy …but no response yet … maybe I can win this one instead…haha
Reading all the rave reviews on different websites I would really like to read the book and see if I am able to learn anything from him.
Hi
I would like to read the book because I am really impressed Tim’ show wall steer warrior and because I think it would help me learn sth new about stock trading.
Who got the book ? I am seeing no announcement on the site? It was supposed to be announced today rght?
Santosh – The winner has been announced and notified. By the way, multiple entries from your same IP address was suspicious, but fortunately, not an issue.