mod (Andy) note: "Blast from the past - Best of Eddie" - This one is originally from January 2011. If there's an old post from Eddie you'd like to see up again shoot me a message.
Okay, I have to admit that part of me wants to post this just to aggravate Midas. But Mixergy did an hour-long interview with perennial red-headed step-child of Wall Street and basement hedge fund manager Tim Sykes yesterday, and it is really worthwhile stuff. Sykes did $1.3 million in revenue at an 85-90% profit margin selling DVDs and newsletters on his website last year. Not too shabby for a guy considered to be a joke by many in our business.
For those who don't know, Sykes is a kid who took $13,000 in Bar Mitzvah money and turned it into $1.65 million through stock trading during his freshman year in college. There are a lot of Tim Sykes stories on the Street, and Dealbreaker maintains an entire Tim Sykes archive, but probably the most famous was his protracted pissing contest with Trader Monthly when he was dis-invited to the annual Top 30 Under 30 party and the very public spat played out in the New York press.
After pretty famously flaming out of Wall Street and going bust, Sykes set up his website three years ago and never looked back. He's averaged about $1 million a year in revenue, and he's only had 3 million unique visitors since he started. In his own words, he's made about a buck per visitor, which is pretty incredible when you consider his operation. He's the "talent", his mom handles DVD fulfillment, and his dad keeps the books. He is the garage band of hedge fund managers.
A lot of you come to me for entrepreneurial advice. I'd say listen to this guy. Few people have been so universally reviled by their target audience and made as much money. That's kind of his thing now. He jokes about the emails he gets that say, "I hope you get raped in the butt." He's more or less an unapologetic racist (I'll bet you won't hire an Indian web developer after watching this). His MySpace moniker is RichAssJew. He makes his money in the market shorting penny stocks (and throws up some pretty crazy numbers). He's basically everything we love to hate, and he makes millions at it.
I'm going to tell you this again. If you're the least bit entrepreneurial, watch this video. If nothing else, you'll come away from it thinking, "Jesus, if that guy can do it...". Plus, he's full of all the usual politically incorrect bombast that made him famous, so it's pretty funny to boot.
My Review: Stopped watching after 30 minutes, here's what I have to say...The video begins with a funny voice which gets better. After a few minutes they cut to Tim being interviewed. Keep in mind the point of the video is to get you to trade penny stocks, hence the interview, but the deeper meaning is for you to go out there and hustle doing something you love, watch your money like a Jew and come out on top. Oh yes, Free sites are B/S and are a waste of time. Keep in mind Tim has 1000 paying members, so the free model works for some sites.
"Growing something that could be huge." He says he's not in it for the money. "I like producing the ideas." His dad handles ops and mom logistics. Tim himself works 17 hours a day. "Some good calls, some bad calls." In reference to how he specialized in shorting penny stocks & why he left writing about big time stocks.
I get a lot of poor people to email me, he tags all people in his system to know how much they spend. So poor people go to the bottom. Analogy you order the steak, it was good meal, but I don't have $50. Point is to keep traffic coming in.
Indians took 3 months to build a terrible website. Outsources create a scene from AI to put together garbage. Indians wanted $10, 000 for an app. One of his subscribers had equity for helping him with site after the Indians, and later left.
30 minutes mark, I gotta leave for work, "unwillingness of media to cover new start ups" and "people don't do research (the customers listening to expert columnists)." And the guy has 3 businesses, 2 books in the works, and 3 DVDs.
Stopped after 10 minutes. Good to see the recap above, didn't find I had the time to watch an hour of this kid.
I dont understand the hate towards Tim to be honest. So what if he trades penny stocks, he has shown he knows how to make money.
Just something I noticed: It says Bat Mitvah, which is for girls. Boys get a Bar Mitvah.
Nice catch, fixed it. I thought it was bar mitzvah for boys but wasn't sure, as I'm not a member of the Tribe. My people give you a pack of Marlboro Lights and a fifth of Jameson when you turn 13.
Irish Catholic?
A few years ago, I checked out that show "Wall Street Warriors." As many of you already know, Tim Sykes was one of the "characters." He was definitely a d-bag. I'm not talking about one of those cool d-bags who at least has a lot of fun and pulls a bunch of chicks. I'm talking about a straight up dork, nerdy d-bag.
With that said, though, can someone please explain to me what all the hate for Tim Sykes is about? I imagine there has to be a bunch of stuff I don't know, since who would receive this much hate just for being a big dork? Yes, the guy is a dweeb, and I would never want to chill at the bar with him, shooting the sh*t and having a few drinks. But, as far as I can tell, he is undeniably successful. I doubt anybody on here turned 13 grand into 1.65 milli at 18. Nor will anybody on here probably start a business in their mid-twenties (or however old he was) that does close to $1 million in profits a year. So, someone please explain to me all the hate. Is their some envy floating around? Do people think he got lucky and doesn't deserve it? Or do people think he's successful, but still hate his guts due to the fact that he is such a turd?
Whenever I see sucessfull peple I say, good for them. If my friends make it big, at first I get a little jelous, but then again I say the same thing...good for them. Never hurts surrounding yourself with people above you, so long as they aren't total d-bags.
I liked Tim until he turned into a spoiled brat after Randall Lane told him he was no longer a member of 30 under 30. Rather than getting hungry and going back to work harder he turned into a child. What would basketball be like if Jordan turned into a brat after he got cut from his HS team? I am all for supporting any entrepreneur but its hard to like a douche bag (evidence Wall St. Worriers) and a spoiled brat (evidence trader monthly).
Tim Sykes is like the Kanye West of finance. He might have some talent but he is an ass. -should be noted that Tim has much less comparable talent than Kanye, Tim did lose most of his $ but you get what i mean
Just a few corrections:
1 I could care less about attending parties, I bitched out Randall Lane because we had been working on my filming the party for MSN Money and he did a complete reversal just days before the party AFTER we had everything already planned and video people hired...thats fucked up
2 I did turn around and work harder, just not in the hedge fund world because I'm not a great trader -- I learned that I am a great teacher. respect it
3 I NEVER "lot most of my money"...it was a 35% hit which sucked but the rumors of my financial death are greatly exaggerated
4 apology accepted for all the misinformation, suck it
If you like this guy even a small amount, you'll hate him after reading his idiotic rantings on LSO:
http://www.timothysykes.com/2008/12/dear-leveraged-sellout-all-you-damn…
http://www.timothysykes.com/2008/09/dear-leveraged-sellout-im-youonly-b…
It inspires me to invest in college and try to be as successful as him.
I'm about 35 minutes into the mixergy interview. LOL -- this guy is hilarious! I've never seen such a cocky dork!
LSO was the funniest blog i have ever read and anyone thinking he is serious in his blogs is a cynical d-bag. This guy seems to epitomize everything he condems bankers for....All the money in the world will not change the fact that this guy is a complete clown.
As far as I'm concerned, Tim Sykes is an idiot. Given some of what Sykes has said in the mailbag on his website, as bulge4lyfe gladly provided us, I'm surprised that most people don't find him more grating. Don't get me wrong, I know it's in regards to LSO, but if you can't laugh at a blog whose entire purpose is to act as a satirical view of the banker lifestyle then you have no understanding of what your bitching about. Couple that with his feud with Randall Lane, the former CEO of Doubeldown Media and author of The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street went Insane, and you have a guy who seems to need to placate his own ego more than anything else. SB+1 Bulge, great links.
Just read one of his Leveraged Sellout rants. Is he retarded? It's like he really didn't understand that LSO was satire. Truly disturbing.
THREE. MILLION. DOLLARS.
The fact that he responded to getting crushed in '07-'08 by lashing out at everybody rather than being humble and quietly getting back in the saddle is probably why so many people hate him. Can you think of any other blown up hedge-fund manager who pulled the stuff bulge4lyf and Frieds refer to? Neither can I.
P.S. Anyone else thinks Timmay looks like Kerviel in that picture?
Eddie, it doesn't matter. 3 Million may be cold hard cash, but look at some of the other people who have gotten suckers to buy into their shtick. Nails Dykstra and Jim Cramer come to mind, and I know people who still believe in Cramer without fault. People are stupid, so he's making money off of that.
Goodbread, I can't think of anyone. My golden standard for blown up hedgefund manager kept himself quiet before opening up the doors of his next fund and doens't have as much media presence as Sykes. Even this biggest names in the Hedge Fund industry don't have a media profile like him, and these are guys who are worth far more than he is.
I hesitate to draw that conclusion about Sykes, Frieds. It's pretty tough to fake those kinds of returns when you're publicly disclosing your trades as you make them. There's no question he's an ass (and seems to pride himself on that fact) but I have a hard time believing he's a fraud.
Look at it this way, if it were all bullshit I can't think of anyone the SEC would rather take down than a small-time high-visibility guy like this so they could look busy while the real criminals at Goldman continue unimpeded.
Eddie,
Fair enough, but I never said he was a fraud. He may be worth every penny he's made as a trader, but he's still selling a shtick (His newsletter, the DVD and whatever else he's trying to promote on his website) for people to invest in Penny Stocks. It's similar to Mad Money and whatever Nails' newsletters were. I said he was benefitting from people being stupid, not defrauding them. There's a difference.
Oh, and as a member of the Tribe, that Fifth of Jameson is a good way to make friends with a few Jews. Everyone I know in the Tribe appreciates good whiskey, bourbon and scotch.
HAHA! That has been my experience with your noble people.
Sorry for jumping the gun on the fraud thing. That's what I thought you meant.
Whats wrong with making money off people being stupid? Its not like money earned off intelligent people is any more valuable.
I would much rather trade against stupid traders than smart ones.
Spoken like Andrew Lahde. And I quote:
Guess it's not the same when the stupid people have degrees from HYP.
why doesn't this guy just keep on trading, he seems to be making more money that way.
i actually know timmy and hes actually really laid back and chill.
just sucks with all the haterade that people aim at him. if you had a bunch of people flaming you because you werent the typical IB douche that they aspire to be, you too would make a mockery of them and tell them to fuck off
thanks yah its fun to be me :)
Eddie,
It's all good.
Derivs,
There is nothing wrong with making money off of stupid people. I never said that there was a problem with it at all. I just said that he is doing it is all.
It took a lot of personal marketing on penny stocks and selling himself to get a following, but he doesn't have any special trading insight as far as I can tell.
I don't know the guy, but this is what a video i found online was claiming about his trades: http://www.prophetalerts.com/2010/09/timothy-sykes-timalerts-and-pennys…
(im paraphrasing here) He has a cult following, and if you buy levels of access to his trading ideas, you get to front run a trade with him. He will go out and pick a stock and buy x thousand shares. Then make up some technical indicator about how its a "breakout" and tell his high level subscribers first, then the 2nd tier, and so on. So as a result he creates a lot of of buying pressure and liquidity in an other-wise illiquid stock. Tim can exit almost immediately against the liquidity he created. Finally, this will juice his returns on any tracking website, and he becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Probably not illegal and a smart way to use your subscribing fan base. After reading that stuff about leveraged sell out posted above, i wouldnt be surprised if he found this thread about himself in a vanity search and started posting.
As someone looking to invest money, wouldn't this be a decently easy (kinda foolproof) way to make some money quickly? Assuming, of course, you were a top tier subscriber and could get the info first? It's like following Cramer, he doesn't have to be the smartest person in the world, but if he has enough followers to make an impact and enough people buy into what he has to say, there should be a way to make money from his advice (not in the long term)...even if you don't believe it to be true. Similar to the Oprah effect or whatever the hell it's called. If she says she likes something the shit flies off the shelves regardless of how good or bad it really is.
Regards
I had the same reaction. He seems to have a market moving effect in micro caps. Could be worth a try if you don't have to get your trades cleared by compliance and are willing to throw money at him to get his hot stock tips first.
see my comment below:
80%+ of my trades and nearly all my biggest ones are shorts on hard-to-borrow stocks, doesnt matter whether I have 1k 10k or even 100k followers, there's not enough shares to short to go around to more than 5-10% of my subscribers so its a battle to see who is the most prepared/educated.
and contrary to some BS rumors, I trade liquid penny stocks, rarely ever approaching more than 5% of their daily volume. apology accepted, i get these assumptions all the time
I'm guessing that if the above is true, it's only a matter of time before the SEC goes after him.....if someone hasn't already made a complaint
I respect the guy's hustle but I still wanna lay a beatdown on him. Funniest part of Wall Street Warriors was when he thought he actually had a shot with gorgeous Iranian-German chick.
Hahaha
Sykes was on a season of Wall Street Warriors. He does act like a pompous priss sometimes and carries himself in a manner that would suggest he runs a $10 Billion fund. Obviously what he would want people to believe. I guess he does trade more than penny stocks for his fund though because he was trading a $400 name on an episode back in 2007/2008 that I assumed to be Google.
Yeah, I've spoken with Tim over the phone a few times and I actually thought he was a good guy.
Thanks! You make a little $ and make a few jokes and everyone's on ya :)
I can't really say anything bad about the guy. I mean, sure he acts like douche but it's probably hard not to be making big cash like in the face of a billion naysayers. (Go ahead, try to tell me that EVERYONE here doesn't know some 24 year old dork that got into IB, made himself some cash, and is now an insufferable prick.) Not to mention the fact that we wouldn't even be talking about him if he didn't act the way he does so he's keeping himself in the conversation and making money.
I think 50 cent proved that both of you have a pretty good handle on how well this could work.
That video on prophetalerts was pretty damning evidence.
Haven't watched the video yet, but I will when I get home.
Happy,
Well, at the end of the day, the old scams just take on new forms. All of the oldest cons just seem to repeat themselves. It's just the way of the world.
BULLSHIT on the scams...80%+ of my trades and nearly all my biggest ones are shorts on hard-to-borrow stocks, doesnt matter whether I have 1k 10k or even 100k followers, there's not enough shares to short to go around to more than 5-10% of my subscribers so its a battle to see who is the most prepared/educated.
and contrary to some BS rumors, I trade liquid penny stocks, rarely ever approaching more than 5% of their daily volume. apology accepted, i get these assumptions all the time
As Biggie said, "make money, get bitches." He seems to have the first one down, so props to him.
Tim,
Glad to see you've found our wonderful little oasis. While I will not be making any amends for my comments, I do want to make sure that you are aware that I wasn't commenting about you in particular. You strike me as the type that could, and would, take something out of context and jump to conclusions about it. It happens to the best of us, so I won't hold it against you, 'natch.
And to clarify, I was just commenting about the 50 Cent reference and how the same old scams (Pump and Dumps et. al.) just find new ways to manifest themselves.
So, I am confused (seriously, not being a dick, actually confused.) You say that there aren't enough shares to go around (only 5 to 10 percent of your subscribers but wouldn't that lend credence to the idea that you are allowing those that pay more (and get the alerts more quickly) to 'dump' on those that come later into the trade (read: those that pay less)? Really not attacking you here, just asking.
Could you also tell us what 'technical indicators' or 'breakout' you say in GSLO in that video? I've honestly never looked at your stuff so just trying to figure out whats what.
No prob, there's no way "to dump on those that come later" because again there's so few shares to short, its just a question of learning the strategy and being one of the few who can prepare ahead of time and reserve shares to short and then execute those shares near the peak...look at the pattern HHWW GRYO CPMCF CPOW...its all the same paid pump and dump pattern, anyone can learn this...I just happen to teach it
As for GSLO, that one I did buy and the stock had made a multi-day breakout which Kris doesnt show...he says the volume is nil but what he underestimates is that I had my finger on the buy trigger for over an hour, waiting to see if it would hold above its former high...even though volume faded, it did hold and I only bought AFTER there were several 20k share blocks that bought ahead of me signalling the breakout was still on...Kris mistakenly thinks I was the 1st 20k block but he doesnt know my exact execution...and the funny thing is he's one of my students who has made tens of thousands with my strategy, now he's just got a competing service so he tries to discredit me
"To make matters worse, cocaine, womanizing, private schooling and alimony–the four pillars of the investment banker lifestyle–aren’t getting any more affordable. Drug dealers/teachers/ex-wives/mistresses are said to be forging a surprising coalition to lobby for their own bailout!"
from one of his LSO posts.
Lines like those make me proud to be a monkey
The fact that he came in here and refuted a lot of your guys claims without blatantly flaming all of you makes me respect him all the more.
Of course, if you guys heard some of the shit I said in real life and didn't know me you'd probably think I was a major piece of shit as well haha.
I have no problem with this guy but lets be real...he is selling a bogus trading system. Like the many many snake-oil salesman floating around wall st, if he was so good he would just trdae himself rather then selling people advice. Have u ever seen a hedge fund manager with a real track-record give it up to try to sell instructional videos? I admire his drive I guess...but he is taking advantage of naive people just like a shady boiler room stock broker.
wow, i've never heard that one before (most common assumption out there)...as i've repeated over and over and over again, my strategy was NEVER scalable, i just didnt realize it when i tried the hedge fund route...sure sure I made $255k trading last year, but I made 4x that with teaching...better biz model now...all trades are verified, the strategy and patterns are the same, there is nothing bogus about it, its just not a multi-million dollar strategy given the lack of shares available to short everywhere...go look at a chart of HHWW...i NAILED that short at 2.75, but only found 35,000 shares to short and that was after searching for 2 weeks straight every day...get it now? apology accepted
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