Whiz kid stock picker: No, I didn't make $72M

The improbable story making the rounds today of the 17-year old whiz kid of Wall Street who is rumored to have made $72 million trading the markets, while still in high school, is being widely disputed.

Mohammed Islam, the alleged teenaged prodigy, said he had no idea where that dollar figure came from and that it's not accurate.

Instead the figure is believed to be a few million dollars, but Mr. Islam declined to be more specific. "The attention is not what we expected - we never wanted the hype. This was about friends trying to make something exciting together, " Mr. Islam said in an exclusive CNBC interview. Mr. Islam and one of his colleagues were scheduled to appear on CNBC's " Halftime Report " following the publication of a New York Magazine profile. The ensuing publicity however, and pre-interview by CNBC, prompted them to reconsider. "We expected a regular article about what we hope to do" in our career, he said. "The way we were portrayed is not who we are." The magazine, in a statement, defended its reporting. "The article portrays the $72 million figure only as a rumor; we changed the headline on the story to reflect more clearly the fact that we did not know the exact figure of how much he had made in trades. The story itself does not specify an amount. However, Mohammed provided bank statements that showed he is worth eight figures; he confirmed on the record that he's worth eight figures," it said.