Calling his operation “a hedge fund for the rest of us,” 17 year-old Jacob Wohl of Corona, CA (about 30 minutes north of where I write this) has gotten sub-million dollar investments from regular working stiffs like his high school coach, among others.  On his WIX-built website, Wohl promotes his “guerilla warfare mentality” approach to investing and proclaims his company to be “the most revolutionary hedge fund in the world.”

What could possibly go wrong?

Not a good sign that people call him (or he has dubbed himself) “The Wohl of Wall Street.”  Only the most morally-challenged person could possibly come to the conclusion that Jordan Belfort is someone to emulate.  But like Belfort, that’s what Wohl seems to be doing–literally saying on his website that “The World Can Be Yours”–and catering to the apparently unsophisticated, likely un-hedged investor.

Not saying that Wohl is morally-challenged or will necessarily make the same bad decisions Belfort did, or most importantly–lose all his clients’ money–but it just doesn’t smell quite right.  You just can’t ever promise the world…but especially not when the fate of your and your clients’ money depends upon the continuation of so-called “extend and pretend” (which is essentially the central bank version of “wingin’ it” or “fake it ’til you make it”) which could (and arguably should) end at any time.