Jonathan Lebed

In this paper I will cover a story about what many people would say it was an unethical business activity, not by a company or a government entity but by only one single person, his name is Jonathan Lebed. Jonathan Lebed is considered by many a stock manipulator. He started trading when he was only 12 years old with $8,000 dollars and within 18 months had a portfolio of $28,000 dollars. At the age of 15 he had a profit of $800,000 dollars due to in my opinion, a genius strategy. Many people might say that his strategy is considered unethical but before reading how he did it, may I ask you this question. These practices still happen, don’t they?

Jonathan Lebed was a normal child, interested in stock trading after seeing his father being promoted and buying shares of the company he worked for. He started by watching CNBC and analyzing the trades, even though he didn’t understand what the numbers meant on the bottom of the screen. As the internet boom took place in the late 90’s Lebed got his first computer and learned everything he could about trading on the internet and TV. Lebed begin trading when he was 12 and despite the fact that he wasn’t an expert, he learned everything about a company he wanted to buy through the internet and if not, he asked his mom to take him to the headquarters of a company to make sure it existed. After 18 months he had a profit of $20,000, and created a website devoted to companies with small market capitalization, known as penny stock companies. This website was having 1500 visitors a day and companies start offering him money to advertise them. At the age of 14 he was called in the US Securities and Exchange Commission and asked many questions about his trading activities. Not frightened by them he continue trading, claiming that they never told him to stop doing what he was doing or that it was a bad thing and he had to stop.

At the age of 15 he started offering his picks for free and as a great marketer he found out that the...