I got my start in entrepreneurship when I was 9 selling the fruit in my parents backyard to neighbors around the neighborhood which I parlayed into buying and selling golf clubs on eBay in later years. It taught me how work hard, embrace risk head one and to look at the numbers.

Eventually, I found my way to public markets as a freshman in college at the Harvard of the west: Arizona State University. 

I spent my first two years working 40-50 hours a week at Charles Schwab making about $45K a year and taking 16 credit hours learning everything I could about this business. From there, I spent my twenties on Wall St. - first on a desk as a futures trader, then an analyst in equities and finally as a PM at a L/S hedge fund. 

Not your “normal” Wall Street career path by a long-shot. 

Today I manage my own money and money for clients through Bustamante Capital Management.


Here's what I've learned along the way.

Have a process. I don’t care what it is you do in the markets, without a repeatable process you’re a tourist waiting to give your money away. You can’t always control the markets, but there are things you can control, focus on and solve for those.

Have a plan for every investment. Early on in my career it was pounded into my head on the futures desk I was on to understand where we would be in and out of any single idea before we got in. Most investors don’t have a clue where they’re going to sell, they just buy and hope….It’s like Russian roulette, it’s going to work a few times but sooner or later you’re going to blow your portfolio up. 

Understand what you own and why you own it.

Not every investment for me is the same: some are long-term ideas I want to hold and some are what I call trading sardines (aka short-term trades). I treat them differently, especially on how they’re sized and what I am willing to accept as far as pain goes if the idea goes against me. 

Learn bet sizing, or at least, come up with some idea of how to do it. There’s always a time to shove the chips in the middle (for the poker players here) but it’s usually rare and I would rather focus on building out a portfolio of ideas v. betting on one idea because no matter how much work you do, there are things you can never account for. 

My hope is that the research here helps you to become a better investor, to ask questions and to keep evolving as an investor. There will be winners and there will be losers but having a process and plans helps to remove the uncertainty and improve the outcome.

Yours in profits,

Daniel X. Bustamante