Zwielicht
Elite Member
- Aug 31, 2013
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- 40,599
Update: The story has finally been confirmed to have been fabricated. It looks like my 4th theory was half right. He made up the story, although he didn't do it to capitalise on his publicity. This was all just bad journalism and a 17 year old's fantasy gone wrong.
Warning: If You Think That These Stories or Threads Are a Waste of Time, Do Not Bother Reading or Posting.
If you don't know who Mohammed Islam is, then that doesn't surprise me. He'a 17 year old high school student from New York who purportedly made $72 million in the stock market. The title sums up the story, although if you want to read the full story, then you can read it here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ION-trading-stocks-lunch-breaks.html#comments
Many people have stated that this story is far-fetched and fictitious while there are others who say that this story is genuine. Because of this, I thought it would be fun to post theories on the story that I've collected from around the Internet (as well as include my own theories) and posting them here.
Theory #1: The Story Is True
The kid could be an investment genius/savant who worked hard to achieve his goal. After all, according to the story, he has been working on this since he was 9 years old. Of course, there are many problems with this theory that make it unlikely to be true.Theory #2: The Story Is Partially True, Although He Had A Significant Starting Capital
Someone on Reddit mentioned this and there was even one person who joked about him starting with his rich parent's $1 billion and ending up with only $72 million. Stories about rich people getting richer by using money given to them by mummy and daddy are pretty common, so I wouldn't rule this theory out entirely.Theory #3: This Is All A Ploy To Get Undisciplined People To Gamble On The Stock Market
This is my own theory about the situation. People on the Internet can be duplicitous and manipulative in order to trick a large number of naive people into doing something they wouldn't normally do. In this case, if you find an actor who can pose as a 17 year old high school student, create a fictitious story about his success (making something look so easy that a high school student could do it), and get enough inside people in on this, then you can manipulate enough people to do what you want them to do.Theory #4: The Kid Is The One Who Fabricated This Story In Order To Sell His "Secrets"
We've all seen those shoddy websites where someone says they made a lot of money doing something and you can too if you buy their product, but what if this guy kicked it up a notch? I would need to do more research on all of this to confirm the veracity of it (such as looking at the date the accounts were created; fake stories usually use new accounts or accounts that were previously inactive).Now, I know these stories are often a distraction from our work (spending more time wishing than doing), but what are your theories or opinions on this story?
Edit: I truncated this post to make it easier to read.
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