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Did a 17-Year-Old Really Make $72 Million in the Stock Market? [UPDATE: Nope]

Did a 17-Year-Old Really Make $72 Million in the Stock Market? [UPDATE: Nope]

Oh, Millennials. Lazy and entitled, just sitting around expecting their deserved millions to fall into their lap. Not like back in the day, when people knew the value of an honest day’s work. So goes the conventional thinking, but conventional thinking is not the style of 17-year-old Mohammed Islam, who’s been trading stocks during lunch at school and, if the rumors are true, has made something like $72 million (million!) in the process. He has a BMW, but no license. He has an apartment in Manhattan, but his parents won’t let him move out just yet. In other words, he sounds a lot like a 17-year-old millionaire. “What makes the world go round?” Islam asked in an interview with The New York Post. “Money. If money is not flowing, if businesses don’t keep going, there’s no innovation, no products, no investments, no growth, no jobs.”

Fancy words, but it’s all a little much to swallow. Some people, including Business Insider, are balking at the “$72 million” number. All Islam will officially confirm that his net worth is in “the high eight figures” and the writer of the Post article says she’s comfortable with what she reported …

[Update] Never mind. In an interview with New York Observer, Islam admitted that his story is a “total fiction.” When asked by Observer if he had “invested and made returns at all,” Islam responded “No.” He said the $72 million figure was a rumored number that he had “led her to believe.” All told, not a great month for fact checkers.

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