Hedge Fund Book

You guys treat writing a book as a solid to make money when the trading is not working out. I think you misunderstand who makes money off of a book cause the publisher gets almost all the money. Authors at Wiley get standard deals of maybe 15% of the WHOLESALE PRICE, not the retail price. Seriously, many people here think when someone writes a book they are going to make a fortune to make up for trading losses lol... Only people making millions on books are J.K Rowling and people like Bill Clinton who sell hundreds of thousands of copies after getting a $1,000,000 advance. I think McMillian's book on options which is about 10 years old has only sold about 700,000 total over that time.

I do not know why you assume that just because he is writing a book, he is a flash in the pan or his trading career is over.

Mark Fisher wrote a book, as did Soros, and many other people who still trade and make money in the market. A book is not the same as someone who stops trading and does seminars all year long.
 
as tim says, trash him/praise him AFTER you read the book, not before.

you guys are going to be pleasantly surprised with this one, i know i was.

regards,

surf
 
Did you join ET for the sole purpose of promoting your new book? If so that's cool I'm just curious. I think you have a pretty tough crowd to pitch to around here with everyone throwing punches at you. Best of luck regardless.
 
Quote from TimothySykes:

[ I hope to change that and show that much of the extreme volatility is predictable and more importantly, exploitable. [/B]
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I will try again here. How do you deal with the added volatility of the smaller cap stocks you trade and exploit that fact. I am trying to understand your trading methodology, thanks.
 
Tim, the fact that you go from some spiel about turning $X into $Y in a certain amount of time as a selling point to being a "trader" or whatever you want to call yourself to being a person with much humility is beguiling to anyone with rationale.

Editing on a show can make someone seem a certain way that they're not; no doubt. But that's difficult to do and I somehow doubt that the editors of WSW really went all out to make you look like a putz...but you sort of did. I'm not saying that it was all you, but to state that people have no right to perceive you a certain way while you also use the show as a springboard is hypocritical to say the least. You continue the putz-like escapades by doing such things as bringing "models" on CNBC which doesn't help aide you in trying to stave off people's assumptions that you're a bit of a schmuck. It's similar to the way that until now, especially with rumors circling that your fund is deep in the red for the year, that you seem to be this defensive person who is trying to save face by purporting that your book will tell all.

By the very fact that you're writing the book you're in the driver's seat to make yourself out to be whatever you're trying to purport instead of a more balanced and non-biased source like another party documenting you. Another hypocritical thing about you...that's like Castro calling Western media slanderers and then saying that reading his auto-biography will clear his name.

You even brag about turning down $35k advance which is a teensy sum. Why you seem to have to throw this figure out is just another sticking point in making you look like someone who is only writing a book because your abilities to trade aren't working out....your focus is clearly still on bragging(?!) about money such as "while turning his $12,415 Bar Mitzvah Gift money into a fully audited pre-tax sum of $1.65 million from 1999 to 2002."

If anyone here thinks that you're writing this book purely out of interest and not because other avenues have closed off for you they're drinking the kool-aid. I'm not judging your book as it may very well be good. I have a lot of experience in microcaps and am curious to see what your knowledge of the field is as I know some (what I consider) sages in the field...but your actions on tv, on this forum, and my general deductions based on your emphatic bragging about pre-tax gains to rejected $35k offers leads me, and apparently others, to conclude that you're only writing the book because your fund is not doing well and you have no other choice but to play the "I want to share my experience and knowledge" card. I have no doubt that if your fund was doing well and you were up even 30% on your $1.6M you'd not be bragging about turning down $35k advance which is really a paltry sum to most anyone, and instead trying to make more money.

Hopefully you'll prove me wrong, but the more you post, the more I sense that those who nay-say the likelihood of you being someone who just wants to share their experience and journey baloney are correct.
 
Quote from Drew07:

Did you join ET for the sole purpose of promoting your new book? If so that's cool I'm just curious. I think you have a pretty tough crowd to pitch to around here with everyone throwing punches at you. Best of luck regardless.
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Nah, I stumbled upon the Hedge Fund TV Show thread and I felt compelled to join in all the fun. Of course, my upcoming book may have had something to do with it :)

I could care less about people throwing punches at me--bring all the bastards on, I got nothin' to hide!

Quote from kinggyppo:

I will try again here. How do you deal with the added volatility of the smaller cap stocks you trade and exploit that fact. I am trying to understand your trading methodology, thanks.
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I've tried trading other market segments, but they're all just too boring/ efficient. As I've previously stated, I'm horrible at timing so I need all the volatility I can get in order to give myself the best chance of hopping on and off during these stocks' wild rides.

And to To Answer SisePuede's hour long post:

1. I talk about my great past success for credibility-sake, not to brag. If industry regulations permitted, I'd talk about my recent performance, too.

2. I will not hide the truth in some BS book like many people in finance have done. I don't write to try to grow my business, I write to teach. I'm not presenting some get rick quick scheme, its an accurate rendering of ALL my trading and hedge fund experiences. Thousands of people have taken the time to contact me--many of these have never stepped foot inside the trading world-- I will not feed them to the wolves. My book is gonna help teach, inspire, entertain a whole lotta people about trading and that's that.

3. I talk about Wiley's offer to show that my book is freaken amazing! Most first time authors only get a $15k advance offer, mine was nearly 2.5x that. And they only read the first 80 pages. If you knew anything about publishing, you would understand that $35k is a lot for a first time financial author. Once again, not bragging, CREDIBILITY. I would've thought that somebody who's posted over 1,000 times on this site might understand a little something about business, but apparently not.

4. I talk about how I rejected Wiley because I think the publishing industry is even more inefficient than microcaps--as always, I plan on exploiting these market inefficiencies.

5. As for bringing models on CNBC-why you don't you try and open your mind a little. If you think that was a schmucky thing to do then fine. Then you won't mind if I think you're a schmuck for criticizing somebody who tried something new to mix it up a little. Aren't you a little tired of all the talking heads trying to talk over each other and show how smart they are? I am--call me crazy, but I prefer to watch models holding stocks charts and seeing how angry Melissa Francis can get. C'mon and live a little, its fun--trust me!
 
Quote from TimothySykes:

First, don't trust anything you see on TV--unfortunately, my trade setups are very rare and the days that we filmed, there wasn't much doing. And on CNBC I was picking stocks for a contest that paid no mind to downside--just not good examples of anything other than my ability to entertain.

Second, oh how I wish I could comment on performance, but I cannot. Also, I never claimed to be the master trader--in fact I suck at timing trades--the point of my book is to show that there are plenty of opportunities in this niche as evidenced by my experiences, even if I was never quite able to master it all.

Third, I think somebody who has huge returns and huge drawdowns can offer many more valuable lessons to readers than somebody who's never made many mistakes or trades with billions of dollars. Not to mention that I've had a wild ride and you're gonna be entertained when you hear it all.

Fourth, you can't judge me to be the real deal or not until you read the book--its that simple. Right now its 69,506 words so talk to me after you read them.



Last leg hardly--I'm 26!! The world is my oyster.

Making a few bucks--if that's the case then why did I reject Wiley's $35k advance offer? I wrote this book to help all the wannabe traders and hedge fund managers who are forced to deal with an industry in which everybody has some kind of an angle and there's nobody telling them the whole truth.

No idea who I am--sorry you missed my show, but we're on our 500th airing now and I'm getting 40+ emails/day from people inspired by my story. I am Queens Boulevard.

Can't adapt to changing market conditions-- please, I've been doing this almost 9 years, I've seen a ton and I'm still doing it.

I can see how you guys think that you understand me, but you really just don't have any idea...you're really making me want to release this book early just so I can clear everything up!
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I didnt realize 35k was a huge advance. Come on man...weak. I watched your show a few times. To be really honest, you come across as a grade one jackass. Now if thats what the TV producers wanted and it was you acting thats one thing. Hopefully thats the story and you really aren't like that clown on tv. The scene with you and the rest of the little league team at the dinner table was priceless. Talk about arrogance.

My "adapt to mkt conditions" statement was based on your early success, and what now seems to be pretty big failure. Correct me if I am wrong.
 
Yo Tim I got a question for you that has nothing to do with trading. I saw an episode yesterday which showed you on the golf course. Was that Ashbrook Golf Course in Scotch Plains, NJ? I recognized the disgusting lake. If so, I play there often - how did you end up at that course?
 
Quote from TimothySykes:



1. I talk about my great past success for credibility-sake, not to brag. If industry regulations permitted, I'd talk about my recent performance, too.

2. I will not hide the truth in some BS book like many people in finance have done. I don't write to try to grow my business, I write to teach. I'm not presenting some get rick quick scheme, its an accurate rendering of ALL my trading and hedge fund experiences. Thousands of people have taken the time to contact me--many of these have never stepped foot inside the trading world-- I will not feed them to the wolves. My book is gonna help teach, inspire, entertain a whole lotta people about trading and that's that.

3. I talk about Wiley's offer to show that my book is freaken amazing! Most first time authors only get a $15k advance offer, mine was nearly 2.5x that. And they only read the first 80 pages. If you knew anything about publishing, you would understand that $35k is a lot for a first time financial author. Once again, not bragging, CREDIBILITY. I would've thought that somebody who's posted over 1,000 times on this site might understand a little something about business, but apparently not.

4. I talk about how I rejected Wiley because I think the publishing industry is even more inefficient than microcaps--as always, I plan on exploiting these market inefficiencies.

5. As for bringing models on CNBC-why you don't you try and open your mind a little. If you think that was a schmucky thing to do then fine. Then you won't mind if I think you're a schmuck for criticizing somebody who tried something new to mix it up a little. Aren't you a little tired of all the talking heads trying to talk over each other and show how smart they are? I am--call me crazy, but I prefer to watch models holding stocks charts and seeing how angry Melissa Francis can get. C'mon and live a little, its fun--trust me!
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1. It's fairly pitiful that you have to use a 5 year old statistic to show off your "great past success!" :D

2. What funds have you worked at? What trading floors have you worked on? Do you honestly think you run a hedge fund? How much money did you ever raise? Wasn't most of the money in your fund your own? You're like a little kid who sells lemonade and tells people he runs a restaurant.

3. "I talk about Wiley's offer to show that my book is freaken amazing!" You're writing a pop book...not a financial book. There is a difference. "When Genius Failed" and "Liar's Poker" probably outsold most trading books...people like Pop. It's interesting and I don't doubt that your book might be good entertainment.

4. Who cares what you think about the publishing industry? Those supposed inefficiencies you've exploited in your trading career have left you using tired 5 year old statistics. What, do you expect to make a whopping $50k on your book?

5. CNBC is supposed to be a financial tv channel. Who cares what the talking heads do? Is that any reason to act like a putz? I guess you think so.

I know of some of your great(:p) trades and they're not great. It's too bad you can't disclose an audited list of ALL of your trades and balances because I think you'd immediately be sent packing with the "den of wolves" howling with laughter. :D
 
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