An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund: Books: Timothy SykesISBN: 0979549701ISBN-13: 9780979549700

Timothy Sykes is nearly impossible to slap a conventional label on. He has managed to achieve what some people take a lifetime to achieve in just 26 years. He has been trader, hedge fund manager, reality TV star, publisher and author. Sykes most notable achievement was his great trading gains made from 1999-2002, where he turned $12,415 to $1.65 million trading penny stocks.An American Hedge Fund is an autobiography on Timothy Sykes. His early years are detailed very briefly and the book moves quickly into the start of his trading career.

An American Hedge Fund Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Prologue: A View from the Top
• Chapter One: Start Me Up
• Chapter Two: Bitten by the Bug
• Chapter Three: Show Time
• Chapter Four: The Freshman 107,000
• Chapter Five: Happy New Year!
• Chapter Six: Once in a Lifetime
• Chapter Seven: When the Levees Broke
• Chapter Eight: Margin of Safety
• Chapter Nine: No Business like Hedge Business
• Chapter Ten: 2004: A Hedge Fund Odyssey
• Chapter Eleven: The Year that Cygnus Built
• Chapter Twelve: I Love New York
• Chapter Thirteen: Pink to Red Ink
• Chapter Fourteen: I am a Warrior
• Chapter Fifteen: Lessons Learned
• The Numbers

The early chapters of the book detail Sykes early entrepreneurial endeavours, starting at the age of nine collecting tennis balls that had been lost and then reselling them. He then moved on to baseball cards followed by the restringing of tennis rackets. What is clearly evident in these chapters are Sykes drive and determination and willingness to take shortcuts, often to his detriment.

His early stock trading experiences first whilst at high school and then later at college are then examined in detail. Sykes realised early on that he did not have the capital to trade NASDAQ listed stock so he moved on to trading OTCBB listed companies. This proved to be a very lucrative endeavour for him. In these chapters Sykes is brutality honest and highlights the trades he was gambling on. He also highlights his lack of discipline, inability to cut his losses quickly and enormous ego. I found these chapters to be slowly paced as individual trades were discussed in great detail rather than summarise a particular group of similar trades.One of Sykes strengths seems to have been his adaptability. He was able to adapt to changing market conditions. After success with his penny stock publicity plays and gap plays he moved on to short selling. This also proved to be a successful approach.

The final chapters of the book detail Sykes creation of a hedge fund his search for capital and his annoyances with SEC regulations. The stock that would ultimately become the downfall of his hedge fund was also examined closely. His reality TV show appearances on Wall Street Warriors is briefly discussed and his move into self publishing.

Bottom Line
This book really does not shed a lot of light on the hedge fund industry there is no real secrets or inside knowledge revealed about hedge funds. The title An American Hedge Fund is definitely a marketing ploy. That being said Sykes is brutally honest detailing not just his successes but also his failures. It really does detail the transitory process every trader does indeed undertake. One of the hardest tasks a trader will face is mastering his or her own psychology. Sykes outlines his lack of discipline, lack of patience and ego which ultimately led to a large drawdown. I found the book entertaining yet slow in places. This book is definitely not for everyone if you are a successful trader who has mastered their own psychology I cannot see much benefit being derived from this book. If however you are new to trading or have not been introduced to the trading world this is a great cautionary tale that I think you will enjoy reading.

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