(FINANCE.YAHOO) — Based on his press clippings 17-year-old high school senior Mohammed “Mo” Islam has already achieved a level of market mastery beyond most investor’s wildest dreams. The question is whether or not there’s even a grain of truth behind the growing legend.
In a story hitting newsstands today New York Magazine claims the 12th best of its ‘Reasons to Love New York’ is “Because a Stuyvesant Senior Made $72 Million Trading Stocks on His Lunch Break”. The senior is Islam. Though light on specifics writer Jessica Pressler says Islam embraced the markets after first blowing up trading penny stocks when he was just 9 years old.
“It was a while before (Islam) was ready to try again” Pressler writes. “In the meantime, he became a scholar of modern finance, studying up on hedge fund managers.”
Apparently he studied the right managers. Though Mo won’t confirm the $72 million he says he has a net worth “in the high 8-figures” and plans to make a billion in the next year. He and his friends have plans to start a hedge fund after Mo turns 18 in June and is old enough to earn a broker dealer license. Mo says he already has a BMW, an apartment in Manhattan and a hedge fund manager who “basically wants to give us $150 million.”
