A-Train Finance

I’ve been reading Tim’s blog for a few months now basically since I’ve started A-Train Finance and became part of the finance blogging community. His claim to fame? His senior year of High School he began trading and turned $12,000 dollars of Bar Mitzvah money into $1.65 Million dollars. Now just 26, (just 4 years my senior) he’s turned full entrepreneur and author. Let’s see what he’s got to say…

Anthony: Hey Tim, what’s up? Thanks for agreeing to do an interview for A-Train Finance.

Tim: No problem, I’m a fan of what you’re doing with your site, [there are] so many crap finance bloggers out there (mostly from horrifically boring value investors) you’re def. not one of them.

Anthony: Thanks a lot, I appreciate the feedback. So what have you been up to these days? You seem like a busy guy.

Tim: Yeah, the TV show ‘Wall Street Warriors’ exposed my story to soooo many people, and that helped me realize how many boring/full of BS people there are in finance. So, I closed my hedge fund and decided to change things for the better; I’m going to liven things up–Will Ferrell style–and that entails me using my big fat opinionated mouth to do what it does best all while detailing my trading strategies on my blog, in my book and DVD. Oh yeah and I have TIMtv and TIMRadio coming out too, just because I need to try everything to reach people.

Anthony: Man. You’ve got a lot going on. I wish you the best of luck. I’m surprised you’re able to fit it all in. I actually just recently finished reading your book ‘An American Hedge Fund‘, I thought it was a great read. What was it like writing your story?

Tim: I fell in love with writing, finishing it three months flat (add another three months for editing) because I had a lot to say and I was motivated to get the whole truth out there, so people wouldn’t be forced to suffer through these /half-truth/sugarcoated/BS/lawyer-sanitized finance books written by POS “financial experts” who instead of wanting to help investors learn are far more concerned with adding another revenue stream and building a platform in order to get more exposure blah blah blah. Investors learn little from that kind of BS, so to prove I’m not int his for the money, closed down my investment management business and created my own publishing company, whose business model is based on brutal honesty. In the book, I just let it all out there and that was very therapeutic because in this regulation-laden, aka oppressed, industry, I’d never been able to be so open. the writing process was also very fulfilling because no matter how successful my book is or is not, I know I have created something out of the ordinary, something I’m very proud of. And, other than some money, I’d never before created anything in my life.

Anthony: The book covers a lot, but I have some more questions for you. What keeps you motivated and why?

Tim: I’m motivated to helping others understand the stock market, stock trading, finance and greed and ambition in general. For all my mistakes, I have one of the best track records around, so I have to be doing something right. I never had a mentor nor have I ever found any books or blogs as honest as mine because people in this industry are too wrapped up in greed, reputation and themselves to ever be so painstaking truthful. It’s no wonder there’s more magazine rack space devoted to transportation than business and finance combined! “Market experts” fail to realize that the overwhelming majorty of people think finance is too boring or complex a subject for them. I think just the opposite, this is a fantastically fun and surprsingly simple game to play, if you are properly taught. If I can turn $12k into $2 mil, so can others and after you hear about all the dumb mistakes I’ve made along the way, I have to believe people can do much better than me. They just need somebody who’s honest, who has experience and knowledge to share and most of all somebody who has nothing to hide. And thanks to my rather unique journey, that’s me.

Anthony: That’s a noble cause. Share the information wealth, right? If you could go back and change any one day in your life, would you?

Tim: I wouldn’t change anything. I’ve had plenty of ups and downs, but I’m so incredibly thankful for everything. Most people wish to avoid big losses, but contrary to popular belief, losses are not the enemy, a lack of understanding is the real enemies. Losses are hugely important because they teach you life altering lessons and scar you enough to force you to remember them in the future. Surprisingly, I learned more from losing $700,000 than I did from making $2 million. I think everyone should experience losses, but ideally, with my help, those losses will be substantially lower while the gains will be substantially higher.

Anthony: That’s a great point. I’d definitely have to agree about learning more from losses than gains. On to some moral fiber- what do you consider to be your top 5 values?

Tim: 1. Honesty. 2. Honesty 3. Honesty 4. Honesty 5. Honesty

If you’re honest with yourself and others, there is nothing you can’t achieve. Seriously, think about it, if you’re eternally honest with everyone, you’re constantly learning from experiences, both good and bad, and learning is the key to unlocking the future. Whether you succeed or fail, if you learn, you’re moving forward on the path to eventual success. I sound like a freaken’ motivational speaker, but maybe I am. Here’s an example:

You, who have never invested a dime in the stock market, put your life savings, which you’ve saved up from mowing lawns and selling crap on eBay over the past few months, towards buying 10 shares of Google (GOOG), let’s say at $700. You’ve worked your ass off for that $7,000, so now you want it to grow. All the “market experts” like Cramer are saying “Google $1,000, Google $1,000″ and you know Google is a great company. You want that easy sounding $3,000, you can almost taste it. But now, one month later, Google is down to $500 and you’re freaking out. $1,000 is looking a whole hell of a lot more impossible and you’re pissed. You have several choices–wait it out and become a long-term investor…or sell and take your losses, admitting you know nothing, vowing to never trust anybody else or the stock market again…or sell half, or a third, etc. If you’re honest with yourself, you take the loss and become determined to read everything stock market related because you’ll never let such a confidence shattering loss into your life again. Good, the loss has scarred you and you’ve become determined to learn to correct. Or you hold the stock, maybe it goes up maybe it goes down, but what do you learn–nothing! Maybe you hold onto it and rush to read Cramer’s books that urge you to watch TV and get rich. LOL, what a load of crap!

I don’t know where this is heading, I suck at teaching (I’m honest about it!), but I can tell you that if you rely on others, don’t cut your losses and go along with the crowd, you’ll never get ahead. For me, I’ve always researched to the point of dehydration, cut my losses somewhat quickly (the one time I didn’t, I lost $700,000) and mocked the crowd for constantly being such lemmings (yeah I’m talking to you, you boring value investors!). Who cares about my money, who cares about my psuedo-celebrity, from my financial journey, I’ve learned self-reliance. That’s worth more than Cramer or anybody on Wall Street will ever make. It’s not just about the money, it’s about the journey!

Anthony: One could say ‘it’s about the journey’ speaking on many different topics in life. So what do you want to see happen in your life? On your 50th birthday, what do you hope to have accomplished?

Tim: Forget 50th, I’m not gonna bore your readers with a 7,000 page essay on my goals in life, but by my 30th birthday, I hope to have taught hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of wannabe and veteran investors and traders, ideally turning thousands or maybe even tens of thousands of them into multi-millionaires, continue to be able to mouth off at anyone who bores me, continue to be able to mouth off at anyone who is a lying, a BS artist, you get the point…I’m going to talk, write, teach, blog, vlog, speak, sign language and exist until every last person has seen what I’ve seen, understood what I’ve understood and most importantly of all, play a large part in getting business/finance publications to outnumber those damn stupid transportation magazines!

Anthony: That sounds like some pretty great goals to me. Let’s get off the finance topic for a second. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

Tim: I’ve been sky diving twice, both times I loved every second of it, also got sinus infections both times because my big Jewish nose couldn’t take all the wind going through it. I encourage everyone to do it, even if you die afterwards, it’ll still be worth it, it’s a mind bending ride.

Anthony: I’ve never done it, but I might try it sometime. Maybe when I’m in my 70’s, so if I do plummet to my death, at least I will have a good 70 years under my belt. I sound like a value investor, playing it safe, right? Hah. You seem like you know yourself pretty well. What would you say is your greatest strength?

Tim: My determination. See all my comments above and multiply them by the biggest number imaginable and you still won’t have the faintest idea of how determined I am to help others and live a fulfilling life.

Anthony: …and your greatest weakness?

Tim: My need for speed. Not the drug, the action, the hype. It’s a horrible trait for a trader and it’s what always gotten me into trouble. That’s why I’ve gone into publishing, it’s the perfect quality required to overhaul the absurdly boring, snooty and lying world of finance. Remember, adapt your strategy to your strengths and weaknesses…I’ve adapted.

Anthony: If you could give a rookie trader one piece of advice, what would it be?

Tim: Never give up, never surrender. Always keep learning, never stop. Never. There is no one right strategy (you hear you me you freaken’ value investors!), find a strategy that suits your strengths and weaknesses and tailor that bitch. Eventually, you’ll find what you’re good at, but always be prepared to change. The market never stands still. You have to be able to adapt or else you’ll be done for. Never get caught up on one investment, they’re always new ones. Never trust anybody who works at any financial firm, they’re all whores who have sold their souls for salaries. You can trade from anywhere, you don’t need a fancy office, you don’t need to spend money to impress anyone, don’t be afraid of losses, but be quick to cut them and most importantly, always have fun or else find something that you enjoy more–life is short.

Anthony: Wow. Well said indeed. Your words are powerful, looks like you’ve got your projects in great momentum. Thanks for your time man, it was great talking.

Tim: The pleasure was all mine, stop by http://www.timothysykes.com anytime and we’ll continue this conversation and more.

Anthony: Sounds great, take it easy!

Tim: No, no time for taking it easy, I’m on a mission!