SubscribeTDI Podcast 36: Rags to Riches
November 28, 2007
Guest: Timothy Sykes – Author of An American Hedge Fund
Early in the week, Andrew forecasts that we were due for a swift change and now the capitulation is at hand! Once we saw the consumer step in during Black Friday and the Cyber-Retail follow up, it was clear that the underlying economy is still strong. Even as we saw sentiment wane, the economy is not dead…at least not yet!
Stocks discussed in this episode: (FRE) (BOOM) (MER) (LEH) (BSC)
Andrew’s guest this episode is Timothy Sykes, the author of the book, An American Hedge Fund. He studied Philosophy and Business at Tulane University while turning his $12,415 Bar Mitzvah Gift money into a fully audited pre-tax sum of $1.65 million from 1999 to 2002 before founding his hedge fund, Cilantro Fund Management, LLC in 2003. He went on to graduate with a B.A. in Philosophy from Tulane in 2003. He is also the benefactor of a Tulane University Scholarship, ‘The Timothy Sykes Day Trading Award for the Talented” that is a unique award in that it is awarded to an deserving Tulane student, faculty, or alumni. In 2006, Timothy’s
hedge fund was ranked the #1 Short-Bias Fund by Barclays for 2003-2006 and he was named to Trader Monthly’s 2006 ‘Top 30 under 30″, a list recognizing the top 30 investment professionals under the age of 30.
He recently debuted as a keynote speaker alongside industry legends Steve Nison and Larry McMillan and starred in the television documentary, Wall Street Warriors on MOJO. He has been featured in Reuters, CNN, CNBC, Businessweek, CBSMarketwatch, FOX News, MSN Money, Yahoo! Finance, Forbes.com, Hedgefund.net, Hedgeco.net, Institutional Investor, Page Six, Gawker.com, Dealbreaker.com, Salon.com, The Kirk Report, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, The New York Times, The New York Observer, Trader Monthly, Realhoboken.com, Dealbook, Alternative Universe and Absolute Return Magazine.
Andrew’s book, The Disciplined Investor is shipping from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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Comments
7 Responses to “TDI Podcast 36: Rags to Riches”
Got something to say?
Re: Tim Sykes amateurish hedge fund book:
Is it more sad or amusing when someone’s young ego spurs them to write a book when they possess neither literary skill nor talent? Sykes has commented elsewhere that his goal to become “a great teacher, not a great investor” but in this sad excuse for a tutorial he proves to be neither as his amateurish errors practically drive him from the market, credibility (what little he had) completely shredded. Perhaps, however, it’s not truly his fault: let’s face it, when it comes to imparting wisdom from Wall Street it is simply not possible that a raw twenty-something simply has much to say.
Not that Sykes doesn’t try however. In perusing the “comments” portion of Amazon book reviews, he’s certainly not reluctant to chime in and offer a defense at nearly every turn. Find me ONE other author at Amazon that feels so compelled to argue his own incompetence.
Tim Sykes should end his determined quest to become a media personality as his grating manner and decidedly non-telegenic looks suit him far better to shine shoes.
BS:
WOW!
Ego? How about Confidence.
Sad or Amusing? How about Bold?
Neither skill not talent? How about determination?
I (and I think he) would agree that toward the end of his hedge fund manager career he got sidetracked and did not remain true to the disciplines that made him successful. It happens to the best of the bunch when fame and fortune come so fast. (bad example coming; how about Britney? – remember I sad bad example…)
Tell us, who is your inspiration? Perhaps his story can help some understand what to watch out for.
One more thing… Is the shoe shine comment really necessary? Takes a bit of wind out of the well written paragraphs it followed.
Don’t be fooled. “Ben S” and “Jon T” among other aliases have been trying to spam my blog (so far all from the SAME IP ADDRESS of 76.26.205.149) with similar long comments about Tim. I’ve been deleting them but they keep getting re-posted with the exact same text (the exact same text that google reveals s/he is tirelessly posting to other blogs as well).
Anyway, nice interview… I enjoyed it and am about to browse through the rest of your podcast episodes.
It is not easy to start a hedgefund from scratch. Even if there was some degree of luck involved, many do not have the conviction, ambition, or ability to start a fund at the age of 21 or 23.
Failure is a part of success. People learn from mistakes. Even some of the most successful on wall street have failed at one time or another, usually early in their careers.
What is worse, failing when you are young and attempting to run a fund with little experience, infrastructure, capital introductions, and contacts? Or failing when you are 45 or 50, blowing up funds in the 6 billion dollar range, or even managing sub-prime loan company that loses 10’s of billions of dollars in shareholder equity.
I don’t think you should dare say that Tim has no talent. He is quite talented in terms of trading volatility in securities that have limited liquidity for short term gains. His ability to compound small gains and the pure instinct that he has about price movement is crucial even for some of the biggest fund managers or bond traders. He may not approach the market in terms of someone with a CFA, an analyst, or someone of the likes of Jim Cramer who claims to have omnipotent knowledge of a certain stock or company– he simply never claims to.
I think Tim, as well as other young fund managers that do not build empires from the get go, could very well perform nicely within a larger organization. A prop desk or working with a group of traders at a larger fund would have been a different path into the hedgefund world.
I enjoyed this podcast very much. Although I’m not quitting my day job to follow Tim Sykes, I was encouraged to hear his fundamental idea of going against the flow in regards to trading.
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