I read the book (thanks again for the comp!) on the plane back from Chicago last night , and here's my back-of-the envelope: I liked the book better than I'd expected. It's a fast and breezy read, and had a pleasantly candid and enthusiastic tone. Mr Sikes comes across as an eager, hard-working, observant market participant with good hondling sensibilities. Several of his trading ideas, though typically not original/unique to him, are well presented and explained. ItThe one negative is the long digression about a private-equity situation that didn't pan out. It distracts from the main narrative flow. But I guess those are the facts of the case. Anyway, I give it a thumbs up. For a market veteran, it's best read with an empty mind, without preconceptions such as 'what the heck does a 20 year old know?', and can be enjoyed as such.
SiSePuede! Donât get me wrong here, I donât really care what Tim does or how he does it, Iâve never watched his show, havenât read his book and donât plan on doing either (well <i>maybe</i> Iâll check out the book). However, turning 12k of bar mitzvah money into 1.65M at his age is quite impressive and not every âshmuckâ or âputzâ can do that. Wiley publishing your book is also noteworthy, they donât just publish anything. You donât need to like, love or respect him, but I donât think you should be taking away from and undermining his achievements - jealousy is one ugly trait.
MAR/II and Barclay post performance figs on thousands of funds. What specific regs are you referring to?
I understand that it's not easy to do. But using what you did 5 years ago, which in my opinion was likely a fluke, to sell yourself now is silly. Tim comes across as a putz through his actions, not through his trades. I'm not jealous in the least, I've accomplished actions similar to Tim's and am slightly younger than he is I think...$50k to over $2M in less than 3 or 4 years...there's nothing amazing about it really in the micrcap market. I know quite a few people who have done so...but Tim apparently hasn't done anything in the last 5 years, or his rhetorical jibe about his gains would be updated don't you think? Seriously, who is congratulatory of people who made a ton of money in the tech bubble? Tim is pretty much using a statistic half a decade old to promote now...it really doesn't say much for his recent performance. I've had large draw-downs and challenges. In the first year I invested I went from $50k to $2M on paper and back down to $300k. Then I've built from there as I've learned....Tim seems to be using one event which, while it may have been great, is also old and if he had continued making such great gains now, he wouldn't be writing a book and bragging about $35k advance offers...it's inane to think so. Tim likes to say that he can't scale which is ridiculous. In the micro/small caps, you can scale to $10M easily, maybe not all in one position, without hurting yourself IF YOU'RE GOOD AT WHAT YOU DO. If you're not good you'll say something like you can't scale which is bullshit. His book might be good...who knows. But for him to claim that he's going to "teach" when he hasn't really experienced anything outside of his own little world seems silly and childish to me.
Which reminds me: In the book, you describe visiting SAC but don't name the firm. Gives the manuscript a bit of an (over)lawyered tone.