Wallstrip was a daily business satire news video podcast launch in October 2006, a year before the US stock market reached its peak. The initial concept was to highlight publicly traded companies whose stock was trading at or near an all time high. As the bear market set in, the show dropped the niche criterion and would feature other companies as well as make commentary on the economy at large. In May 2007, the program was acquired by CBS's interactive unit at an estimated value of US$4 million to US$ 5 million.

The Show[link]

A typical show would last a couple of minutes. As the host presented the show, a corner of the screen would continually display a series of wacky photos that were loosely related to the narration to add humour of the content. Interviews with heads of various companies, industry insiders, and even the general public during on location shows were common.

Timeline[link]

The podcast was launched on October 16, 2006, but two teasers were released two days beforehand. Co-creator Howard Lindzon, a small-sized hedge fund manager, described his vision for the show in the first teaser. This was followed the next day by the first appearance of the show host Lindsay Campbell who held the post for five quarters. On the episode of January 14, 2008, Campbell announced without warning at the start of the show that she was leaving Wallstrip and hinted that the new show host Julie Alexandria would be starting really soon. After that sudden and short announcement, she launched into the topic of the day (Open Text Corporation) and a three-second clip was shown, at the end of which the new host Alexandria, wearing an identical dress had already taken her place. The change over was done without a break. At the end of the broadcast, Alexandria joked that she wanted to redo the first part of the show again. A one-minute segment followed where Campbell recalled her experience on the show and announced her new career at political news podcast MobLogic. Campbell made a sudden guest appearance wearing the same dress as Alexandria during a memorable second anniversary episode on October 15, 2008, entitled "2 Legit 2 Quit". They shared a cake and a cocktail while presenting a mashup of scenes from the previous episodes. Alexandria wished for another fabulous season of Wallstrip but it was not to be.

Current status[link]

Just two months short of the two-year anniversary show, the offerings of episodes stopped abruptly with no prior announcements after the final episode on December 12, 2008. As the podcast was not generating the anticipated revenue, despite the popularity of the show, it appeared that CBS would no longer provide on-going funding.^[1] In all, around 500 episodes were produced during the 26 month period.

Current and Former Hosts[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Wallstrip Website
• Wallstrip on YouTube

Timothy Sykes
File:Timothy Sykes altucher Talking.jpg Timothy Sykes in New York, NY talking to James Altucher
Born	1981 Orange, CT
Residence	New York, NY
Nationality	American
Education	Tulane University
Website
www.timothysykes.com

Timothy Sykes (born 1981, Orange, Connecticut) is an American author and investor. He is featured in the reality television show Wall Street Warriors, and is author of the book An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund. He is known for exposing the skeletons of and profiting from the short selling of penny stocks.

Early history[link]

Through his investments, Sykes grew his $12,415 gift money into $1.65 million from 1999-2002 while he was pursuing his Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy from Tulane University.^[1]

Investor[link]

Often called the "The Startup", in early 2003, Sykes founded Cilantro Fund Management LLC, a hedge fund based in New York City. The fund was ranked number one Short Bias Hedge Fund for 2003-2006 by Barclay Hedge, before closing in late 2007 after losing roughly one third of its value due to an illiquid investment.

Sykes bounced back in 2007-2011, becoming the #1 ranked trader out of 60,000+ on Covestor, a platform that verifies trades and performance.

Personal[link]

Sykes studied at Tulane University receiving a major in Philosophy and minoring in Business in 2003. He now is a financial activist where he exposes corporations, companies and individuals involved in 'pump and dump' scams and he also teaches novices how to profit from short-selling stocks of such corporations.

Features[link]

Sykes was named to Trader Monthly 2006 "Top 30 under 30", a list recognizing the top 30 investment professionals under the age of 30.^[2] He has been featured on CNBC, CNN, Fox News, BusinessWeek, Marketwatch, The New York Post, Reuters, Institutional Investor, TheStreet.com, Young Money^[3] and The New York Times.

Notes and references[link]

Henry Blodget (born 1966) is an American former equity research analyst, currently banned from the securities industry, who was senior Internet analyst for CIBC Oppenheimer during the dot-com bubble and the head of the global Internet research team at Merrill Lynch. Blodget is now the editor and CEO of The Business Insider, a business news and analysis site, and a host of Yahoo Daily Ticker, a finance show on Yahoo.

Blodget received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and began his career as a freelance journalist and was a proofreader for Harper's Magazine.

In 1994, Blodget joined the corporate finance training program at Prudential Securities, and, two years later, moved to Oppenheimer & Co. in equity research. In October 1998,^[1] he predicted that Amazon.com's stock price would hit a pre-split price of $400 (which it did a month later, gaining 128%).

This call received significant media attention, and, two months later, he accepted a position at Merrill Lynch.^[1][2] In early 2000, days before the dot-com bubble burst, Blodget personally invested $700,000 in tech stocks, only to lose most of it in the years that followed.^[3] In 2001, he accepted a buyout offer from Merrill Lynch and left the firm.

Fraud allegation and settlement[link]

In 2002, then New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, published Merrill Lynch e-mails in which Blodget gave assessments about stocks which conflicted with what was publicly published.^[4] In 2003, he was charged with civil securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.^[5] He agreed to a permanent ban from the securities industry and paid a $2 million fine plus a $2 million disgorgement.^[6]

Writing[link]

As of 2011 he is co-founder, CEO/Editor-in-Chief of The Business Insider, a blog about Internet business trends and research. He is a frequent contributor to the magazines Slate, Newsweek and New York. He began writing for Slate in January 2004, initially covering the Martha Stewart trials. In July 2004, Blodget began writing a four-part series entitled "The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual" for the magazine. He examined the role of analysts, noting: "Predicting future market performance is not an exact science, and those who pretend it is do so at their peril." This series expanded to a total of 13 articles.^[7]

Blodget's later articles for the magazine have focused on the return-limiting actions of individual investors, including listening to analysts and the financial media, and relying on active management such as mutual and hedge funds. Blodget now recommends low fee index investing to capture the broad return, while focusing on reduced portfolio turnover to minimize taxes. His Slate articles about investing carry a seven-paragraph disclosure of potential conflicts of interest.^[3]

He published The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual: A Consumer's Guide to Intelligent Investing in January 2007.

Current career – Internet broadcaster[link]

As of April 2011, Blodget co-hosts the The Daily-Ticker^[8] broadcast with Aaron Task weekdays at Yahoo! Finance.

Books[link]

• The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual: A Consumer's Guide to Intelligent Investing. Atlas Books, 2007. ISBN 0-9777433-2-2.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Silicon Alley Insider Henry Blodget's multi-author technology blog
• Internet Outsider Henry Blodget's old blog
• The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual – Promotional site for Blodget's first book.

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since July 2011. It may have been edited by a contributor who has a close connection with its subject. Tagged since April 2011.

Todd Harrison is the founder and CEO of the Emmy Award-winning internet media company Minyanville.

Biography[link]

Wall Street Career

Todd Harrison optioned out of a two-decade ascent toward the upper echelons of Wall Street leadership to found Minyanville, a website dedicated to financial education and related projects, such as the Ruby Peck Foundation for Children's Education which supports learning through creative education.^[1]

Harrison finished as Vice President after a seven-year stint (1992–1998) on the worldwide equity derivative desk at Morgan Stanley, went on to become Managing Director of Derivatives at The Galleon Group, and completed his Wall Street career as President of the $400 million hedge fund, Cramer Berkowitz, and writer for TheStreet.com. He became CEO of the Minyanville internet media company founded in 2003.^[2]

The Other Side of Wall Street: In Business it Pays to Be an Animal, In Life It Pays to Be Yourself (2011: FT Press) was written by Harrison to relate the story of how and why he left a lucrative career in trading and finance to create a company dedicated to informing both Wall Street professionals and the general public about the complexities, trends and harsh realities of the stock market.^[3]

Harrison has appeared on Fox, CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg TV and in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, Worth, Fortune, Barron's, Dow Jones Marketwatch, New York Magazine and Canada’s National Post, and contributed articles to various market-related publications.^[4]

Numerous academic institutions, such as Harvard University, Syracuse University, New York University, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, have hosted Harrison's lectures and presentations. He was featured in the 20th anniversary documentary of Oliver Stone's Wall Street.^[5]

In 2008 Harrison received an Emmy Award from The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for serving as executive producer of Minyanville's World In Review, television's first animated business news show.

Minyanville & Ruby Peck Foundation

Minyanville Media, Inc. has four business lines; dot.com properties include Minyanville, which produces and curates original content that is syndicated throughout the web, including Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, and AOL Money and Finance. MV Professional Products licenses content to enterprise partners and provides a suite of subscription products for consumers. Minyanville Studios produces original content, both for it’s flagship website and for third-party enterprise clients. MV Gaming consists of a massive multi-player online game. Minyanland.com is geared toward the financial education of 8-12 year-old children.^[6]

Since its inception, the Ruby Peck Foundation for Children's Education has provided grants to support projects such as Junior Achievement of New York's entrepreneurial education program, New York's Children's Aid Society and music programs sponsored by the organization Little Kids Rock. The Ruby Peck Foundation raises money through individual and corporate donations, and its annual "Festivus" party, a combination Wall Street get-together, holiday party and rock concert, held annually in December.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Todd Harrison writings at Minyanville
• Minyanville home page
• Amazon
• Buzz and Banter
• Ruby Peck foundation

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