Did New York High Schooler Mohammed Islam Really Make $72M From The Stock Market?

Mohammed Islam, a 17-year-old from Stuyvesant High School in New York City, was reported to have made a whopping $72 million on the stock market, often skipping his lunch break to play the market. Now that figure is being widely disputed!

While many agree that Islam is ahead of his time in the stock market, they also agree that the $72 million total is a hyped number, according to those familiar with the teenager's story

Mohammed Islam, the alleged teenaged prodigy himself, says he has no idea who came up with that amount and that it's not accurate. Instead, he says, it's closer to just a few million dollars. Mr. Islam said in an exclusive interview with CNBC,

"The attention is not what we expected – we never wanted the hype. This was about friends trying to make something exciting together/ We expected a regular article about what he hope to do" in our career. The way we were portrayed is not who we are."

According to the referenced New York Post article, Mohammed Islam has already purchased himself a BMW – although he's still awaiting a license to drive it – along with an apartment in New York City, even though his parents have not allowed him to move out on his own yet.

Islam said he plans to start a hedge fund with some of his friends, but has to wait until June because until then he won't be old enough to get a broker-dealer license to start the business, noted the Post.

The teen was featured in New York magazine on Sunday, which described how Islam's unassuming nature allowed him to quietly reach superstar status in the stock market.

"Everyone at Stuy knew that Mohammed, the soft-spoken son of Bengali immigrants from Queens and the president of the school's Investment Club, was basically a genius."

"The school paper profiled him, Business Insider included him on a list of '20 Under 20' and Mo became 'a celebrity, a VIP.'"

The debate about how much of the $72 million is real and how much is just hype began after an investment club questioned it. The club told The Business Insider;

"It has been brought to the attention of the Leaders Investment Club that Mohammed Islam has been rumored to have made $72,000,000 through making trades in the stock market. After performing due diligence and talking with Mohammed Islam himself, we have determined that these claims are false and simply been blown up by the media in the interests of sensationalism."

Well, even if it's not up to 72 million, a few million dollars is still nothing to be sneezed at. Quite and inspirational story, and a very intelligent young man, he'll certainly go places.