Published: 07 Aug, 2007 23:37 PT

A little more than a month ago I received an email from someone named Timothy Sykes telling me how much he liked our site - especially the educational aspect of it. The name sounded oddly familiar but it didn't ring a bell until I read further. So as it turns out, Timothy Sykes is also known as "The Bar Mitzvah Boy", who came to Wall Street stardom after he turned his $12K Bar Mitzvah gift money to about $1.65 Million in audited earnings by trading microcap stocks. He then founded his own hedge fund, Cliantro Fund Management, LLC when he was still a college senior in 2003. But that's not enough for Sykes. According to his introduction, Cilantro was named the #1 Short Bias Hedge Fund for 2003-2006 by Barclays. And in 2006, Sykes was named as one of Trader Monthly Magazine's "Top 30 under 30". He also starred in the television documentary "Wall Street Warriors" and made regular guest appearances on CNBC. And all that was said and done ... before his 27th birthday. To say Sykes has a life less ordinary is a definite understatement. Inspired by his own experiences as a stock operator and hedge fund founder / manager, he decided to write a book that will, in his own words: "smash the boring finance stereotype to pieces"! To my delight, he offered to send me an advance copy of his book for feedback. Who am I to resist this offer? An autographed copy of his book, titled "An American Hedge Fund", arrived in the mail a few days later. I promised him that I will not disclose too much about the book until closer to its release in early October, 2007, but I can say that is was quite an interesting read and it took me no time to finish it. It's also fair to say that Sykes' book offers intrigue and learning oportunities while being fun and engaging at the same time. Not bad for a first-time author! To learn more about Timothy Sykes and his new book, check out his home page at: http://www.timothysykes.com/.