17 year old worth $72mm from trading?

http://nypost.com/2014/12/14/stuyvesant-hs-student-nets-72m-on-the-stoc…

I calculate an 84.2% CAGR if he started with $1mm at age 10.

Maybe his parents gave him $100mm and he's now worth $72?

41 Comments
 

Now that's some serious beard for a 17 year old.

Not really sure how he hit it big time though, being that long in penny stocks without some serious losses, all while being leveraged to the hilt.

 

This entire article reeks of a great troll on a trolling news paper. If that's really the best they can do trading pure liquidity on a pink sheets market they need to find another job. Shit I would argue I did better than that return wise on some of the most illiquid investments on the planet.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

Even when you're trading penny stocks, the liquidity becomes a major issue when you're trading a couple 100k in a single name. I'm thinking he probably went long like a mofo on some OTM calls on something stupid like TSLA or GPRO. You don't make that much that quickly doing something not stupid. Gonna be a helluva quick blow up if they get that fund running.

I wish they would've audited his results, the kid and his story just seem sketch.

 

None of you guys read the article. The most important line was 'Mo got into trading oil and gold, and his bank account grew. Though he is shy about the $72 million number, he confirmed his net worth is in the “high eight figures.”'

It's gotta be futures.

 

Indian Jr. Madoff? Only joking... but the 72 million remark is based off of rumors at his high school. Pretty sure that I could've helped create a story like that while in high school. Like everyone else, the story is missing a lot of info as to the general idea of how he made his money. Good luck to him, and good luck to his buddies riding his coattails towards their own prosperity.

"Decide what to be and go be it." - The Avett Brothers
 

I doubt he started with $1,000,000 I can't see any parent giving a 10 year old more that 1000 bucks. Unless they are billionaires.

Also I have to ask why this dude wants to go to college ?

He made $72,000,000 which is more than most actors, athletes, singers, entrepreneurs.

This is like Kobe Bryant getting drafted to the NBA and then going to college to study physiotherapy or something.

You have an alleged $72,000,000 and you want to sit in a classroom, you could start your fund with $20,000,000 and have a $52,000,000 nest egg.

I can only imagine what its like to be 17 in NYC with $72,000,000 :P

 

Flawed analogy here. The reason why it wouldn't make sense for Kobe to attend college is that in professional sports, there is no value to having a college degree. The same cannot be said for finance. Yes, this kid has done quite well, but having some sort of institutional credibility will help him a lot. He should at least attend a top college (guessing he could get into HYPS/Wharton), learn some stuff, have tons of fun with his money, and do something afterwards.

 
mbavsmfin

Flawed analogy here. The reason why it wouldn't make sense for Kobe to attend college is that in professional sports, there is no value to having a college degree. The same cannot be said for finance. Yes, this kid has done quite well, but having some sort of institutional credibility will help him a lot. He should at least attend a top college (guessing he could get into HYPS/Wharton), learn some stuff, have tons of fun with his money, and do something afterwards.

You really think institutional credibility means a lot if he can make $72MM? Is this a joke? Does it fucking matter if he went to Harvard if he can deliver money like that?

 
mbavsmfin

Flawed analogy here. The reason why it wouldn't make sense for Kobe to attend college is that in professional sports, there is no value to having a college degree. The same cannot be said for finance. Yes, this kid has done quite well, but having some sort of institutional credibility will help him a lot. He should at least attend a top college (guessing he could get into HYPS/Wharton), learn some stuff, have tons of fun with his money, and do something afterwards.

Maybe a better one would be Steve Jobs doing degrees computer science, and an MBA. So he could start Apple.

A hedge fund is a business just like Apple that kid could walk out of High school and start his fund with his own money nothing is stopping him and going to college will hinder him more than help him.

 

I know of his family- they live in Queens or something. Not uberrich at all. At MOST, he played around with $5k. Even that is a stretch. Bengali parents aren't known for having extraordinary confidence in their pre-pubescent children. If he actually made $72MM from a couple of thousand, more power to him. I just hope this isn't some lame attempt to look "cool". lol @ "more money, less problems."

 
Best Response
ArcherVice

Are any of you actually taking this seriously?

What's the funniest thing about this whole story is that it literally is based on high school rumors. Just shows you how ridiculous the media is. Now media outlets are backtracking on the story and "investigating" whether or not there is 72 million. Must be 72 million rupees...
"Decide what to be and go be it." - The Avett Brothers
 

You misspelled "rubles" :-)

People want to believe in things like this, it makes much less outlandish (but probably still out of reach) goals/dreams seem much easier and reasonable.

 

Unless this kid started with a few million, what he did is impossible. He would've had to have at least 1000% returns for a few years with a few thousand dollars to come near 72. Maybe a million or three, but not "high eight figures".

"Decide what to be and go be it." - The Avett Brothers
 

These HS kids trolled a news paper that trolls its readers on a regular basis. Nice.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

I can't believe how low the bar is to be a reporter nowadays. Love her defense that the magazine wasn't a financial publication. As if that absolves her from doing even the most basic fact checking.

 

Out of all his big bad ass quotes in that article,the part where his friend is noted calling this guy being similar to Jordan Belfort from the wolf of wall street, made it really obvious. No wannabe can be this smart and the way he was trying to pull his bad ass personality. The movie wolf of wall street might not create a lot of wolves but definitely contributing in a heavy stock of wannabees. I feel bad for that guy but EPIC FAIL it is.

 

Out of all his big bad ass quotes in that article,the part where his friend is noted calling this guy being similar to Jordan Belfort from the wolf of wall street, made it really obvious. No wannabe can be this smart and the way he was trying to pull his bad ass personality. The movie wolf of wall street might not create a lot of wolves but definitely contributing in a heavy stock of wannabees. I feel bad for that guy but EPIC FAIL it is.

 

I first heard of this guy from my wife based on something she saw on FB, so it's getting most of its traction on the non-finance grapevine. So I never took it too seriously. He could still make a lot of money selling books or seminars to the Rich Dad, Poor Dad crowd.

 

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