Boston Gal's Open Wallet

I started watching this series - I don't get MOJO either, but now that you pointed me there, I've spent the last 3 hours on my computer. No laundry's getting done today ...:-)

Btw, I just tagged you for a book meme, so come on over and take a look ..

 

After reading this post I decided to check out the Wall Street Warrior episodes, and like CT Mom found myself watching them one after another.

What a moron that Timmay dude is - why the hell would you participate in that show and reveal to the world what a total ass you are? I did some googling on the guy and he has a cheesy investor blog where he reveals his trading successes and failures - it is full of those stupid Zecco trading banners so many pfbloggers are shilling (must be a profitable affiliate program). Wonder how much of that 1.65 mil Timmay has left...

 

Boston Gal,

Thanks for posting about "Wall Street Warriors" - I just watched all of Season 1. This was a great way to spend an early Sunday morning.


A can not agree with "Really Sucessful Dude" about Tim. Tim is not a "Moron" he is a "Genius" RSD and MANY others also have GOOGLED Tim. The more people that go to Tim's website the more money Tim can potentially make.

BTW thanks for have a GREAT blog, I have been reading your blog for about a year and I still think yours is the best personal finance blog on the web.

 

ARGHHHHHHHHH!!!!

OK I need to comment on this. This guy is so far removed from Wall Street that its like a 5-year old tee ball player saying he is on the Yankees. I'm 27 and work on Wall Street and am a real trader for a real hedge fund. This guy is such a joke. His so-called strategy is based on buying penny stocks in the hope that they will go up a lot. His money is pretty much gone, just on another blog where people were making fun of him he came on to post and defend himself but admitted to quickly losing $700k of that money he originally made. It is not a real hedge fund, his entire hedge fund is smaller than most people who work on Wall Street's personal portfolios. Unless you are managing at least $50 million you can't be considered a hedge fund by any bank, and usually you need at least $100 million. The average hedge fund amongst true hedge funds (not just little puddles of money that call themselves hedge funds) is $780 million.

This guy is a joke. Let me repeat - he is a joke. I haven't seen this show but it does not surprise me that he comes across as a total loser. My only concern is that people don't consider him to be running a hedge fund or have any association with Wall Street - it is unfair to those that actually are in these businesses.

 

Hi Anonymous,

Actually Tim's method in general is to short penny stocks with high volatility that have risen rapidly recently without any earnings to back it up. Essentially he preys on the same people that boiler room Wall Street folk prey on except he doesn't try to cold call people to pump up these stocks before shorting them.

I agree with you that the amount of money he works with is not considered a lot of money anymore. However, if he had the assets of the Vanguard 500 index there would be no way he could effectively implement his strategy or gamble depending on how you want to call it. Really the only way he can get his idea to work is with smaller amounts of money that would not move the stock price significantly when he shorts.

Some might call him foolish for shorting worthless stocks. He is not really investing. Just leeching off unintelligent or misinformed investors.

However, the same could be said of many larger so called hedge funds that take high fees from a pool of unwitting large investors who thought they were getting a risk managed fund to find out that their funds have lost significant value due to risky schemes like borrowing Japanese Yen to buy mortgage backed securities. Although the mortgage backed securities may have been misrepresented by investment banks and ratings companies, it is really the investors like hedge funds who did not do sufficient due diligence.

Just because Tim's fund failed does not make him worse than any other larger fund. For example, look at Long Term Capital Management, run by people considered very smart and top wall street executives. The fund failed due to a situation that their model did not properly plan for. That is what happened to Tim - he longed a stock without risk mitigation.

A real hedge fund is one which is run by one who fully understands and successfully utilizes risk management. That should be the main purpose of hedging - to insure yourself against losses. I think that is why those who have come from a futures background like George Soros is so successful in this area because he has come from a futures background in which understanding and mitigating risk is the main purpose of that market.

 

Thanks for introducing me to this series - I enjoyed watching the first season last night! However, I was disappointed that the show started focusing only on Tim and that blonde woman as the season progressed. I suppose they were trying to spice things up with sex, but I found the behind-the-scenes look at Wall Street (and real Wall Street people, not eye candy and wannabes) the more interesting angle.

 

Hi Escape Brooklyn,

I agree with you - the other folks in the series are what kept me watching episode after episode. I found myself fast forwarding whenever the blonde appeared. The same with Tim during that golf game and the roof party. In the second series my fast forward person is the recent college grad - while waiting for an email to find out if you are going to get accepted as a daytrader without salary and no hope of earning any money for 6 months might be deemed riveting tv by the MOJO folks, it is not for me. However, the Cotton broker screaming in the pit and talking about her job was interesting.

 

Love the haters, realize that is a highly edited TV show and its success and the lack of understanding about my storyline in particular is directly responsible for me creating my publishing company, BullShip Press, LLC and write my book "An American Hedge Fund" (which the DJ Newswire along with several dozen bloggers/reviews compared to the classic "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" to cut through all the BS and make startup hedge funds and stock trading, specifically smallcaps and penny stocks, more understandable. Yes, my strategy isn't scalable (as I learned the hard way), but it's ideal for smaller investors who mistakenly believe 20-30% annual returns are great. Pleaseeee, you guys have been brainwashed--I don't even use leverage and for all my mistakes, I'm up 30% int he past 3 months alone (you can see all my trades on Covestor.com, where I'm currently #1 ranked)

All I ask is that you give me a chance, visit my website http://www.timothysykes.com and see what I'm talking about.

 

Nice try Timmy - but you were still a dick to your Mother caught for immortality on a tv camera. Why the hell would I want to track your losing investment style when I can't respect you as a human being?

 

My mom and I joke around with each other, deal with it. As for wanting to track my investments, no pressure, you can either deal with full of bull investment "professionals" who sell sugarocated/generalized products and take fees or listen to somebody like me who's fed up with the entire BS Wall Street system and wants to change everything up by telling it like it is. Makes little difference to me, money isn't even the end all for me anymore, it's too much fun to piss everyone off by telling the truth. It's sad that brutal honesty is a revolutionary business model, but that's the finance industry for ya!

 

Just seems to me like more publicity for this Tim dude.

 

Is it just me, or are they not offering season one on the MOJO site anymore? I can only seem to play one episode (the latest one).

If anyone could clue me in, that'd be great...

 

It is still there. Just go to Episodes and then click [1] for the list of season 1 episodes - or just click here.

 

Just wanted to again state that I think Tim is BRILLIANT. I was at lunch yesterday and a young man sitting near me spent 30 minutes telling his parent all about Tim and his hedge fund. Tim is getting a LOT of FREE publicity from this show!

 

They are no longer offering the shows online for free. I wrote Mojo and they said you have to buy the episodes ($1.99) on Amazon Unbox. This sucks 'cause I enjoy the show and can't get Mojo on TV where I am but I'm not spending $2.00 an episode to watch. If anyone knows of a place offering season 2 episodes for free, please let me know. I may not learn anything from the show but it sure motivates me to get back to work and try to make some money!

 

All of Seasons 1 and 2 are free on hulu.com now.

 

I'm a little late chiming in on this blog, but Tim Sykes is the douchiest douchebag on the face of the earth. The way he treated his mother as she was waiting on him hand and foot was pretty sickening. And, of course, I read recently that his hedge fund went out of business. I guess there is justice in the world.