I think that I had heard about this story a few months ago and then I heard that it was not even true. I had my suspicions from the time that I heard the story I kept on thinking to myself that there have been people that have been in this industry for years and have not earn this money and here comes a couple of teens making a boat load of cash and they are doing it on their lunch breaks. I was like nope this could never be true so this was something that I never believed.
Sounds, like crap to me. Do you have the source? This story does sound interesting to me, being someone who has made a few thousand off of penny stocks. I believe it really comes down to luck. Low risk low reward type of investing.
Seems as if the kids seemingly brilliant facade was focused in con artistry, not in the 5 things listed above. He's an actor, sometimes actors portray a too good to be true role (millionaires). Someone spotted this ability and coached it. Bravo!
Once anyone who actually knew anything about investing started asking him a few basic questions, it was obvious he was lying. I think it speaks more to the NY Mag's journalist's stupidity or lack of journalistic skill than to any "brilliance" on the kid's part.
The reporters should have gotten all the real facts before they just ran with this story. However this will get people's attention because it got my attention to want to know more.
I'd have to say of course it's a scam, or creative journalism. Either way I'd be very surprised if the figures that have been quoted are anywhere near the truth. The article as done what every article sets out to do though, and got people reading it and talking about it, so in that respect the journalist must be given a pat on the back.
Geez, how many times does it need to said this was proven to be a hoax, pure and simple? End of transmission. End of story. Zap... bzzt...
No chance that is actually true. I find that to be so ridiculously unlikely. As people have said it is probably a scam, and even an article discrediting this was posted. It is so funny to consider that people would actually believe something like that. Stock trading doesn't work like this. It isn't that simple and can't be done so easily to make absolutely huge amounts of money that easily.
If you notice, this was not entirely a hoax. The media definitely took some motivated kids that acted intelligently and portrayed them as far more successful than they actually were, but if you read what is going on then you see that journalists misconstrued the information as opposed to the 17 year old lying. Mr Islam was intentionally vague about the figures he earned because his intention was to promote active participation and learning within his group. I think we can all learn from this. Mr Islam did make quite a bit of money off penny stocks - that is a fact. He did so by learning a lot about how to trade penny stocks and applying his knowledge. Yes, there is a bit of luck involved, but these kids are showing that the way to succeed in trading is to remain constantly plugged in and improving their skills and expanding their knowledge. They did not just "get lucky".
