This Millionaire Stock Trader Makes More Money Being a 'Douche …
“All his marketing makes him look like a jerk,” says Jo-ann Skyes. She is, oddly enough, speaking about her son.
His name: Timothy Sykes. At the ripe, young age of 33, he was the ostentatious self-made millionaire you may recall having seen on the reality TV show “Wall Street Warriors.” He was the only memorable character on the show — none of the other financial advisors chased after models, broke furniture or had their mothers tidy up their place after a hard night of partying.
Never watched the show? Luckily, Sykes has poignantly summed up his life and credentials in a fantastic blog on Metro dedicated to his own achievements:
“I’ve made millions in the stock market, written the bestselling book, ‘An American Hedge Fund,’ used the money to live well and travel all over the world and now my top student just passed $2 million in profits last week. And I’m only 33 years old. I know a thing or two about success.”
For Sykes, success began with the $12,000 he saved from his bar mitzvah. Having already whet his appetite for investing after dabbling in penny stocks, Sykes decided he knew best what to do with the money: invest heavier in penny stocks.
His mother:
“We figured he would lose it all and learn a valuable lesson.”
But, Sykes didn’t lose his money. By the time he graduated from college, he had managed to rake in $1.65 million from his investments.
More importantly, after years of riding the ups and downs in the treacherous world of penny stock trading, Sykes realized there were dollars to be made outside of investing.
Sykes said:
“ ‘Wall Street Warriors’ was when I realized that even though my performance was shot because of one bad investment, I could still make a name for myself by being unruly.
“ ’Cause everyone in finance is so f—ing boring.”
How He Changed Up the Game
Sykes reasoned that, if anything, purchasing a screamingly loud orange Lamborghini, flying in private jets and posting videos of his decadent lifestyle would get the job done.
Michael Goode, Sykes’ “top student,” put it more bluntly:
“He embraced the douche aesthetic.”
With fan mail pouring in from around the globe, Syke wasted no time in monetizing his growing infamy.
After all, his fans were writing for one purpose: money.
“The show made me realize there was a much greater need for education and transparency than there was for another kid to manage rich people’s money.”
So he transformed himself into a financial guru.
Sykes then set up Profit.ly, a web-based, social network for traders, according to Bloomberg Business. Profit.ly now has 50,000 members and a subset of 6,000 who pay to receive all of Syke’s penny stock trading “know how,” which entails tips via email, newsletters and Syke’s webinars. The self-proclaimed “douche” even sells instructional DVDs for a whopping $1,500 on his official website.
Sykes says:
“People will cancel my newsletters if I don’t trade.
“More people will cancel if I make a bad trade.”
But while penny stock trading is one thing, successfully teaching people how to make money through penny stock trading is another. One testimonial to Sykes’ teachings comes in the form of Michael Goode, Sykes’ self-proclaimed “top student” who claims to have raked in $1.4 million employing Sykes’ investing strategies.
Sykes proudly states that he earned nearly $4 million from Profit.ly sales alone last year. Last year’s investments didn’t end too modestly either — Sykes called 2014 his “best year ever,” as his yearly account grew from $500,000 to $875,000.
“I teach, I trade, and I make money. It’s a beautiful marriage.”
However, don’t be fooled. Life as a penny stock trader hasn’t been one boulevard of unbroken green lights for Sykes. He knows what it means to win and lose, and luckily, when it comes to giving advice, he’s not so much of a douche after all.
“No matter what your passion is, you will screw up somewhere along the way. Far too many people get discouraged and let one or two failures stop them or slow them down. In the past, I’ve lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the stock market when I broke my trading rules and I was ridiculed by the press and my industry and became very depressed. But I pulled myself back up by re-focusing and abiding by the rules that made me successful at first and I used my mistakes to learn what not to do.”
Tim Grittani, another one of Sykes’ students who claims to have pulled in more than $1 million using Sykes’ methods, says of his guru:
“I’ve hung out with Tim when the cameras aren’t rolling, and he’s just a completely different person.
“When he’s not selling something, he’s just a normal guy. The difference is incredible.”
No matter whether he’s a douche or just a normal guy, it’s safe to say that Timothy Sykes is an incredible success.
Images via Bloomberg
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This Millionaire Stock Trader Makes More Money Being a 'Douche …
