Story of the $72 million teen trader unravels

cnnmoney ^ | 12/15/14 | Tom Kludt

[Signalman]

It didn't take long for New York Magazine's story on a 17-year-old stock whiz with a rumored net worth of $72 million to make a splash. But the story's juicy premise unraveled almost as quickly. Wapo.com Jessica Pressler wrote the profile of Mohammed Islam, a senior at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, for a feature called "Reasons to Love New York." After getting an advanced look at Pressler's piece, the New York Post put the improbable story on its Sunday front page. By Monday morning, Islam's story was one of the hottest on Facebook.

Then it fell apart. In an interview with the New York Observer published Monday night, Islam admitted that he fabricated the whole story and has never actually made a return on any investment. "So it's total fiction?" asked the Observer. "Yes," Islam said.

[Jonty30]

Anybody can give a Tedx talk. I didn’t find any restrictions on it when I searched for them.

[rrrod]

Naw...sell the reporter to arab slavers and be done with her.......

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

I was more like an investment gambler, completely out of my mind and drinking quite a lot. I daytraded and wanted to have huge returns so I would invest huge, I sometimes made a huge return but I also lost huge, I think the most I ever lost on one stock was $14,000 on a penny stock which was probably the most insane thing I ever did in my life when it came to money. I think the most I ever made on one trade was $8,000. It pretty much evened out, probably leaning more towards a loss. After Google I stopped and gave my money to a mutual fund, thank God I quit. But what I learned is the only way you ever lose is if you sell unless it’s some crap penny stock company. Every stock I ever bought always came back to the price I bought it at and went above. It could take a year or 10 years but it’s pretty impossible to lose money unless you sell. One example is Amazon I bought at 54 in 2004 and for two years all it did is go down and down and down and I was freaking out because 54 seemed like the highest possible price so like an idiot after those two years I sold at a loss. And what happened next? It went to 93 then dropped a bit then hit a high of 398. That’s why I tell people, never ever ever ever ever sell. Even if you have to keep that money in the stock for 20 years, never sell at a loss, never lose because that thing will always come back at a profit unless it’s some penny stock Al Gore bullsh*t company. Tegal (TGAL) is an example of that, they scammed the hell out of a bunch of investors using pump and dump, then skipped town

[T-Bone Texan]

"...I daresay you could throw a rock into a crowd in any Islamic country and hit at least 6 or 7 “Mohameds”...."

Well, we'll never know until we try!