Should you invest with a kid?
I recently read a fairly disturbing article in American Way Magazine entitled "The Kid."
It's about a 21 year old college student running an investment club called the "Shark Fund."
The disturbing part is that he is investing his fellow student's money and producing
"an eye-popping 341 percent return since its inception."
(the author makes no suggestion that perhaps there is some serious risk attached to such a strategy) Am I suggesting that because he's young, his efforts have no merit?
Certainly not. This tidbit, however, gives me serious pause:
One of the highlights of Suleiman’s life: meeting (Jim) Cramer at a taping of the show at the CNBC studios in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.“Here’s a legend with a $100 million contract with CNBC, who doesn’t need to give me the time of day, and he’s taking the time to talk to me about stocks,”Suleiman says, still amazed. “He told me, ‘Keep going, kid, and don’t give up, because you’ve got something special.’ That moment really stuck with me.”
Seriously? Is he the only person in America who hasn't seen this video?
And the sadly misinformed author of the article says this:
He has passed the milestone of a 300 percent fund gain, a tripling of cash that would have even market legends like Legg Mason’s Bill Miller — famous for beating the stock- market average for 15 straight years — green with envy.
In actuality, It's not taking much these days to make Bill Miller envious. As reported in the Wall Street Journal,
"A year ago, his Value Trust fund had $16.5 billion under management. Now, after losses and redemptions, it has assets of $4.3 billion,according to Morningstar Inc. Value Trust's investors have lost 58% of their money over the past year, 20 percentage points worse than the declineon the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index. These losses have wiped away Value Trust's years of market-beating performance.The fund is now among the worst-performing in its class for the last one-, three-, five- and 10-year periods, according to Morningstar."
There is also no record of him or his company having registered as an investment adviser with either the SEC or any state.
That means that if he loses all of his classmate's money through dangerous, reckless, and inappropriate investments, they have no recourse.
He also cannot legally charge a fee until he does register. I wonder if he knows that?
He does have a website, though, that gives the impression that he's looking for more investors...
The article does offer one sage piece of advice:
“Be very careful,” advises Jim Rogers, co-founder (with George Soros) of the legendary Quantum Fund ...
“There’s nothing more dangerous than big successes in the market when one first begins.”
Good advice.
"The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know."
-- 1 Corinthians 8:2
