An American Hedge Fund
I finally had a chance to read An American Hedge Fund by Timothy Sykes. To give you some perspective on where I was coming from, I didn’t even know what a hedge fund was when I was sent the book. (Wikipedia defines it as “a private investment fund that charges a performance fee and is typically open to only a limited range of qualified investors.” See this link for more information.) But, the book had all sorts of stock symbols across the cover and the idea of reading the story of a person who had turned $12,412 into $1.65 million was appealing. So I began reading.
The book covers Timothy’s money-making ups and downs to date. He starts out with a description of his childhood — he started trading at age 12 — and the way he was bitten by the stock market bug. He talks about skipping classes to go to the library so that he could use the computers to monitor the market, etc. We follow his highs and lows as he enters college, and then his decision to create his own hedge fund. His frustration with the SEC regulations governing hedge funds comes through loud and clear, as does his desire to help others avoid the pitfalls that he encountered. The book is definitely heartfelt, and he doesn’t gloss over the way that he felt or acted prior to or after the creation of his fund.
Overall, I liked the book, because it got me excited about the stock market but also pointed out a lot of problems and dangers. While the book isn’t super polished sounding, it’s an honest and interesting story.
