He has money to buy a new apartment in Manhattan and he has earned a reported $72 million from trades in oil and gold after losing a lot in penny stocks. Hes also being courted by hedge funds, one of which would like to seed him $150 million for his investment future. And he wants to buy a new BMW but his dad still has to drive him around. Hes still a student in New Yorks vaunted Stuyvesant School and hes too young to have a drivers license.
[Update: The aspiring trader in question has admitted it was all fake.]
Meet Mohammed Islam, a Stuyvesant junior who made a mint trading and may start his own fund very soon. This rather breathless New York magazine profile hits all the high points – teachers in awe of their students money, slick sycophants, and the phrase one billion dollars – but we learn very little about what makes Islam tick. Or whether this young man could do more harm than good for himself and his clients.
We do learn that this quiet, cherubic trader has the fever for trading:
Mo started with penny stocks. A cousin showed him how to trade. He loved the feeling of risk-the way his hand shook making the trade-but he swore it off after losing a chunk of the money hed made tutoring. I didnt have the b—s for it, he said. He was 9.
Like any high school student with a promising talent, Islam has drawn new friends to his circle, one of whom seems as enamored with a recent Leonardo DiCaprio movie as he is attending college and making his first billion before his 21st birthday. When Mo talks about creating some amount of influence with his wealth, his partner/friend blurts out: Like in Wolf of Wall Street! said Damir Tulemaganbetov, a fellow schoolmate and son of an oligarch Kazakh. And Mo is Jordan Belfort.
(Someone get Damir some media training. Stat.)
Traders wonders where young Islam will attend college. We have a few suggestions for some great quantitative trading schools – and our advice is free.
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Traders profiles a young quant trader fresh from UC Berkeley and lists the top quantiative trading schools of 2014.
