This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com
I don’t know anything about Timmy, or Retardo, for that matter. However, I do wonder why everyone doubts Timothy Sykes story. He made some money in the market (a lot of money), and he didn’t do well with his hedge fund. I would think that if he was making it all up, it would have come out by now.
Either way, I like to see bloggers actually go after one another. Trading bloggers, participating in a giant circle jerk, is boring most of the time.
And Timmay’s response.
And DT is still gay!
This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com
February 6th, 2008 at 2:32 am
Maybe it’s true. Maybe not. Either way, I think most people are just jealous. I know I am.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:32 am
Cripple fight!
[obligatory South Park reference]
February 6th, 2008 at 9:00 am
jay: i would bet that Timmay’s story is true, and that most of us r jealous :-)
bill: lol
February 6th, 2008 at 11:17 am
@bill: LOL
February 6th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Got to admit though, Timmay sounds a little bit like a girl.
February 6th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I think a lot of traders fantasize about running a fund, but the day-to-day reality of it might dissuade them – just as the day-to-day reality of trading one’s own account for a living might, if they let it. While the first part of the book was boring, the latter parts were worth reading IMO, especially the parts about the raising of money. That said, I think the diversification of income and the inherent “put” of running other people’s money are attractive notions, although I’m not sure if they’re attractive enough to consider doing it, personally. I think he did a good job of discussing that. It’s also clear from the book that he was unknowing capitalizing on the “pump and dump” that others were executing, and that accounts for his outsized gains during the Naz bubble.
The main gripe most folks have about Tim, myself included, is probably that he’s such a publicity whore. Kind of like a male, Jewish, Paris Hilton or Britney Spears of day-trading. Here, buy the perfume! Get the DVD! Watch him go clubbing! Oops, a nipple slip! His blog is like reading The Superficial or Egotastic, but with crummier pictures. At least, crummier from my straight, white, middle-aged man point of view.
February 6th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
bill: it sounds to me like he’s giving a fairly realistic account of how he made his money…most people didn’t keep their money from that time period, so i give him props for that
i think most people are mad because that attention whore gets more attention than some blogger with 300 daily visitors…they’re making $100/month in blog revenue by selling ads that actually harms a trader’s growth - while hiding under the cover of helping people…that’s me on my soapbox…i’ll climb down now
February 6th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Oh yeah, I totally believe that he had the returns he claims. He even acknowledges in the book that he was finding patterns created by others’ pump’n'dumps and was capitalizing on it, nothing wrong with that, it’s exactly the same thing as finding unusual options activity and moving on it, which a lot of traders do - and the unusual options activity is “usually” insider information.
300 visits at 1.2 views/visit to get $100 a month, WOW! That’s $9.13 eCPM! Daaa-YAMMM! Tell me who those guys are, I’d like to get some of THOSE ads! Personally, I’m getting about $1.00 eCPM on a 0.23% or so clickthru rate from AdSense for one spot, for the lifetime of the blog, and it doesn’t quite cover hosting fees annually. Funny things about their contextual ads, I mentioned septic tanks in the incorporation post and got an “enviro-toilet” ad, and I’ve been getting a lot of ads for candidates OTHER than Ron when I post about politics.
I don’t know what TimothySykes[dot]com does in traffic, clickthru, or eCPM, but I do know that I went there just now and saw SIX ads above the fold (including one for his book) – page down and see TWO more + a CoVestor widget – page down and see FOUR more (one for his DVD) plus a “Feed the Bull” widget – for a total of TWELVE ADS. You’ll see FOUR more if you click on an article. That’s not counting the Google Search box or the plug for the web designer at the bottom of the page.
Ya’think Timmy helps anybody? Have you bought his $297 DVD package, and is it any good? Will it help a trader’s growth?
February 6th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
bill: i don’t know the first thing about timmay…i haven’t bought any of his stuff, and i don’t claim he’s helping anyone…i just find it funny that there are so many people running ads on their blogs that hype bullshit…then they say that the purpose of their blog is to help traders…i must confess that i don’t know how many click thrus u need to generate $100/month…i’ve never run ads
at least timmay sells books…if people have something to sell, then sell it…actually, people who don’t have anything to sell can keep running ads, and say their blog is to help people…i would just think that if anyone really wanted to help traders, they wouldn’t allow certain types of ads to run on their site…i’d much rather see septic tank ads than ads for turning $1000 into a cool million
as i said, this is a pet peeve of mine, but i’m clearly in the minority
February 6th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
timothysykes.com
i just thought i’d post the actual link in hopes of driving up his traffic, and putting some more adsense in is pocket
while i’m at it, here’s a blog that i actually read (even with the ads)…reading blogs without ads is almost like finding a girl who’s never had a kid, an abortion, or been married…i don’t even try anymore, i just try to pick ‘em young, so maybe they’ve only scored a two out of a possible three
http://billakanodoodahs.com/
February 6th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I actually reviewed Tim’s book last year, but you got the gist of it in my comments.
You need to get a LOT of traffic, or be really slutty about the number of ads and their placement, to do much more than just pay for server costs with them. The simple ad programs don’t give the owner much control over the ads, and to get the control, the admin time eats into everything, or they look cheesy. Unless you join a network, which I’ve considered doing, because then you get better quality products to advertise and a little more control over it, with someone else doing the admin. I bet Timmy makes more than just server costs off his ads! Every once in a while, I do get some of those “turn $10 into $10,000″ ads, but my audience isn’t typical. I figure if they’re reading my stuff, they’ve got enough sense to click on the ads that sound realistic and ignore the ones that don’t, but what do I know?
Personally, what I read, I read for the content, and the only ads that bother me are the ones IN the content, or the ones that float up or play sound. Every once in a while I see an ad for a service I’m interested in! Doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.
There’s a spectrum, some people hate the very idea of advertising, some the ads are just there to help pick up around the edges, some write to sell something else like a course/newsletter/dvd or even money management services. The most popular bloggers on the web are selling services, “Barry’s Big Bearish Bullshit” is just advertising for his product, you know, just like “Random Roger” manages money and “Mish” pimps for a firm, etc. Sometimes the material is useful, sometimes it isn’t, sometimes it has ads, sometimes it doesn’t. “Like a box of chocolates.”
Right now I’m seeing them pick up around the edges, pay for hosting. Later I’ll probably sell a newsletter tracking the system picks, once they have a public track record.
Yeah, finding a blogger that doesn’t use ads is about as hard nowadays as finding a girl of legal age without a “tramp stamp.”
February 6th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
bill: now that’s where we differ…i like the tramp stamps…i can overlook the ad(non)sense, but i’m not willing to budge on something so important as a tramp stamp
one thing is for sure, if they are a regular reader of yours, and still click one of those get rich ads, they deserve what they get
February 6th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
When I was young, a long time ago, a woman with a tattoo was SEXY, because that kind of self-mutilation on a woman indicated the lack of self-respect that might make her available to screw *anyone* - maybe even ME! Now that tattoos on women are so commonplace, they’ve lost their “edge.” It’s just not as powerful an indicator of sluttiness as it used to be. Heck, respectable women get tattoos nowadays!
My dad had a ton of tattoos, when I was nine years old or so, my buddy Wes asked him, “Mr. Rempel, were you drunk when you got any of those tattoos?” My dad’s answer tells you alot about growing up in my house — “Yep, every f*cking one of ‘em!”
Dad also gave me some advice on tattoos. “Never get a tattoo that’ll show when you’re wearing a suit in court.”
February 6th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
bill: LOL…great advice