Tim Sykes, Capital Schmuck
It's like along with the gene for making money comes the gene for assholishness! Remember Tim Sykes (no relation to Bergdorf Blonde Plum, unfortch), star of Wall Street Warriors, a 25-year-old West Village short-seller? He's young but his Wall Street ways go way back:
"Back in '99, the stock market was going pretty crazy. I was in High School," recalls Sykes. "My parents gave me $13,000 of my Bat Mitzvah money that I put it into a discount online brokerage, and I was able to turn that $13,000 into a fully-audited pre-tax sum of $1.65 million. It all happened into my freshman year of college; I pretty much made $1 million in five months. I'm in my dorm room and I'm up $20,000 on the day. It almost wasn't real. It was like a video game and I was going for the highest score. "
And how has he been putting that money to good use since? Well, he's got a butler!
But see, "He's a friend, a prot g . He doesn't really have the money to afford rent in a West Village apartment, so he makes up for it with the cleaning and cooking." And also: "I cannot stress enough that drinking, partying and taking time off dramatically helps trading results...Wall Street is all about greed, the worst of human emotions, and just not a good place to be. But it's great place to try and make some money. That's capitalism."
Right-o. But what about how he makes his money? Isn't he betting that companies will fail? That's kind of mean, isn't it?
Shorting is so mysterious; it's kind of like hedge funds. So if you run a short-selling on a hedge fund, God forbid...you're the fucking devil. It's unpatriotic. I'm betting against American companies," he continues. "I'm rooting for them to fail. Little do they know that the companies I'm shorting don't deserve to have a high stock price. So I'm not a bad guy...I'm just taking advantage of the fact that bad guys are out there."
And which actor does he most admire? Why, Ashton Kutcher, of course!
He came out of nowhere. He takes on smart projects. Now he's got Demi, even though he's got that weird thing going on with Bruce Willis. His business sense is pretty amazing for a former male model.
"Takes on smart projects"? Not sure that's how we'd characterize Just Married, but whatever.
