Timothy Sykes is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 speculator, investor

Investor

An investor is a party that makes an investment into one or more categories of assets --- equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, derivatives such as put and call options, etc...

, business person, and hedge fund

Hedge fund

A hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...

 manager, featured in the reality television

Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...

 show Wall Street Warriors

Wall Street Warriors

Wall Street Warriors is a documentary and reality TV series that details the lives of various Wall Street entrepreneurs. Copyrighted for «In Demand». A MOJO HD channel original series, each episode is 30 minutes long and shot in high definition video. Currently two seasons have aired and a third...

, and is author of the book An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund. He is known for exposing the skeletons of and profiting from the short selling

Short selling

In finance, short selling is the practice of selling assets, usually securities, that have been borrowed from a third party with the intention of buying identical assets back at a later date to return to that third party...

 of penny stocks.

Early history

Through his investments, Sykes grew his $12,415 gift money into $1.65 million from 1999-2002 while he was pursuing his Bachelor's Degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 in Philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 from Tulane University

Tulane University

Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...

.

Investor

Often called the "The Startup", in early 2003, Sykes founded Cilantro Fund Management LLC, a hedge fund

Hedge fund

A hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...

 based in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The fund was ranked number one Short Bias Hedge Fund for 2003-2006 by Barclay Hedge, before closing in late 2007 after losing roughly one third of its value due to an illiquid investment.

Sykes bounced back in 2007-2011, becoming the #1 ranked trader out of 60,000+ on Covestor

Covestor

Covestor is an online Investment Management platform that allows you to mirror the real trades of successful individual or Professional Investors...

, a platform that verifies trades and performance.

Personal

Sykes studied at Tulane University

Tulane University

Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...

 receiving a major in Philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and minoring in Business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

 in 2003.
He now is a financial activist where he exposes corporations, companies and individuals involved in 'pump and dump' scams. He also teaches novices how to profit from short-selling stocks of such corporations.

Features

Sykes was named to Trader Monthly

Trader Monthly

Trader Monthly was a lifestyle magazine for financial traders founded by Magnus Greaves, edited by Randall Lane, and chaired by Jim Dunning under the company Doubledown Media. The target audience of Trader Monthly was the financial community with an average income at or exceeding U.S.$ 450,000...

2006 "Top 30 under 30", a list recognizing the top 30 investment professionals under the age of 30. He has been featured on CNBC

CNBC

CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...

, CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, Fox News, BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek

Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...

, Marketwatch

MarketWatch

MarketWatch operates a financial information website that provides business news, analysis and stock market data to some 6 million people. MarketWatch offers personal finance news and advice, tools for investors and access to industry research. Along with its flagship website, the company operates...

, The New York Post, Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

, Institutional Investor

Institutional investor

Institutional investors are organizations which pool large sums of money and invest those sums in securities, real property and other investment assets...

, TheStreet.com

TheStreet.com

-History:TheStreet.com, Inc., was co-founded in 1996 by Jim Cramer and Martin Peretz. It is traded on the NASDAQ Global Market. The company is headquartered at 14 Wall Street in New York City. Its stock was made public in May 1999 under the direction of past Chairman and Chief Executive Officer...

, Young Money and The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

.