Today we’d like to introduce you to Rainier Trinidad.
Hi Rainier, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I got my start in April of 1999 at Wells Fargo’s Wealth Management division in Seattle. I was 24 at the time, with a degree in Economics from the University of Washington. but from time to time, I kept hitting a figurative wall in my career. It was when someone relayed a conversation to me that it finally made sense. He confided to me that some prospective clients liked me, but they thought I looked too young.
Looking young for my age is something I have heard my entire life. Back when I was 24, my coworkers joked I looked like I was 10. Finally, after it all clicked together, I asked my mentor what I should do. He said, “Rainier, if you’re serious about this business, you need to get the CFA.” I only had a vague idea of what it was. All I knew was that the smartest and most senior portfolio managers had that designation. The Chartered Financial Analyst designation is considered the hardest test on Wall Street to pass. It’s a series of three exams, CFA Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3, and it is a pass/fail test. Each exam is about 5 hours long, and pass rates are between 40%-50% for each level. About 8 out of 10 people fail to pass all three exams on their first try. Generally, it takes about a year to pass each level. This was going to be the hardest test of my life, but I was very motivated, so I got to studying.
And I passed. 1, 2, and 3. After I got my letters, people no longer cared how young I looked. “Oh, you’ve got the CFA? Here’s my money.” And within a short time, I was managing $100 million in assets. I loved my time there.
Four and a half years in, one of the senior portfolio managers who I deeply respected told me that he was going to start a hedge fund in Sun Valley, Idaho. He asked if I’d like to work with him and co-manage it. It had always been my dream to become a hedge fund manager. It’s a world of gunslingers with very few constraints, which was very much the opposite of what it was like at a large financial institution, where safety and conformity were paramount.
In the hedge fund world, you can make a lot of money if you have a good investment strategy. And we did. We used some proprietary research that helped us identify the differences in valuations among different publicly traded real estate stocks called REITs. We then used that information to buy a basket of undervalued REITs and then simultaneously “selling short” an equivalent basket of overvalued REITs, which created something called a “market neutral portfolio” which insulated us from the market’s ups and downs. The only way we could really make money was if the research was correct in identifying asset mispricings. And it did a wonderful job doing that. Our returns were steady and eventually attracted the attention (and money) of some institutions, and eventually, the $1 million hedge fund grew to over $50 million as it attracted more investors.
Our investment performance was considered by some to be too good to be true at the time since it generated such attractive returns with such low risk. In the investing world, getting that kind of result was considered the holy grail, since usually, higher returns come with higher risk. So they asked us for daily trade executions, and after months of tracking us, they realized it was real and then the assets came in more rapidly. I bring this up because the person examining us was an extraordinarily perceptive gentleman by the name of Neil Chelo. Neil happened to work very closely with Harry Markopolos to help take down the infamous Bernie Madoff, the guy who fabricated his investment returns to look too good to be true. So I found it especially gratifying to have our hedge fund backed by the guy who helped take down Madoff.
Things continued along nicely, and then the 2008 Financial Crisis happened. That October was the most intense month of my life. Market volatility was through the roof, and when people were panicking, they just sold everything indiscriminately, and our pricing models saw huge valuation gaps open and close within days, and sometimes within hours. The moment the opening bell rang to the closing bell, I remembered I was executing trades almost non-stop. It was exhausting, but it paid off. We had our best month and best year ever during the crisis, and we were one of the few investment managers to be able to pull it off. For perspective on how difficult it was to achieve this, in 2008, of the 2,800 mutual funds that Morningstar tracked, only one made money.
After 2008, we started noticing the investment strategy of arbitraging REITs started to taper off. In the hedge fund world, your information edge is your most important secret, and if other people discover that secret, they will copy it, and the more people copy it, the smaller and smaller your edge becomes, until it vanishes entirely. And that’s what happened. Year by year, the excess returns kept getting smaller and smaller, and so in 2013, we saw the writing on the wall and wrapped up the hedge fund.
In 2014, armed only with my wealth management and hedge fund experience, I went out on my own and launched Parabolic Asset Management. I started over with zero assets under management. Thankfully I had a lot saved from my hedge fund days, because starting a business from scratch is very difficult. The common saying is that over half of businesses fail. I started telling people about the new direction I took, and in a short time, my circle of friends came together and supported me. It was a touching moment for me to see people encouraging me and wishing for my success for making that leap to go out there on my own. I think many of us dream of living life on our own terms, and when we see people go out there, daring greatly (thanks, Brené Brown and Teddy Roosevelt for that reference), it inspires us and we want to do what we can to help that person succeed.
And that’s what happened. Some of my best friends started telling me they had some investments they wanted me to manage, or their family member wanted a new advisor and wanted an introduction. I got my website set up, hired an SEO company so people could find me on Google, and set up a Yelp and Google account for reviews. I joined business referral groups, went to networking events, made presentations, and joined the Rotary Club of Coronado, where I made some of the best friends I’ve ever been blessed with. The business started to grow, but in those early years, I hadn’t reached positive cash flow yet, and when you have a mortgage and a little one, you do everything you can to fight to get there. So we Airbnb’d an extra unused room we had, and in my extra hours, I did Uber. So I pretty much had three jobs, and it was hard work. But the business continued to grow, mostly through word of mouth, and over time, I was able to solely focus on my investment management business and let go of those other platforms that helped provide a stepping stone during a very crucial time in my life.
As my investment management business gained more traction, I added complimentary financial planning to add more value to my clients. Now, clients are able to see how their investments are growing in the context of their retirement plan. Clients found it especially valuable to have their retirement readiness quantified and stress tested with Monte Carlo simulations, and I even got a couple clients to retire years ahead of their original plan thanks to this additional service.
A few years ago, I got another professional designation called the CDFA, which stands for Certified Divorce Financial Analyst. After having gone through an amicable divorce myself, I realized the process of dividing assets between a husband and wife was often a lopsided one. People often didn’t know what they were entitled to, and as a result, the parties involved did not know whether their assets were divided fairly. I help fix that and level the playing field. That’s something I now also provide on a complimentary basis to clients.
I’m always looking for ways to grow, so in 2022, I decided to test my skills against some of the best investors and traders in the country, so I entered the U.S. Investing Championships. As we all know, 2022 ended up being one of the worst years for the stock market in this century, with the S&P 500 falling as much as 25% before ending the year down 18.1%. I ended the year with a top-20 finish, placing 18th with a positive return of +5.5%, beating the S&P 500 by 23.6%.
Now in 2025, I’m expanding my services even further to assist clients with another important part of their financial picture: their estate plans, so they can be protected from the costly and lengthy probate process and have full control over how they distribute their assets to their heirs. By partnering with EncorEstate Plans, clients can now set up trusts at less than half the cost of traditional estate planning attorneys. About 1 out 2 families in the US are homeowners, but only about 1 in 7 have trusts, and of those who have trusts, about 2/3 of them are not funded, which makes them ineffective.
My goal with all this is to help ensure all parts of a client’s financial house is in order: their investments, their financial plan, and their estate. Clients get all that, along with the peace of mind that they are being taken care of.
So that’s my story. I’ve had an extraordinary journey these past 26 years, and I’m thankful for everyone who has played a role to help get me to where I am today. And now that I’m 50, I’m looking forward to using everything I’ve learned to make the road ahead even more rewarding for my clients.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
You know, from the outside, it might look smooth, but getting there wasn’t. When I started out in my career as an investment manager, I hit a wall with clients who just couldn’t get past my young appearance. Getting my CFA was my way of proving my dedication and skill. After that, leaving a stable job to co-manage a hedge fund in Idaho felt like a leap of faith, and let’s not forget the 2008 financial crisis. That was the most intense month of my life, but it also became our best year ever. (That performance was specific to a particular investment strategy and a different firm, and it is not indicative of the results or services of Parabolic Asset Management.) And then, when that hedge fund strategy lost its edge, I had to be realistic and move on.
Starting Parabolic Asset Management in 2014 was like hitting the reset button. I went from managing tens of millions to zero. Those first years were a real grind. I was driving for Uber and renting out a room in our house as an Airbnb host just to make ends meet, all while raising a little one. Looking back, it was a challenge, but I’m proud of how I handled it.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I think what sets us apart is my unique background. My career began with earning the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, which is considered one of the hardest tests in the financial industry. It’s a stamp of credibility and expertise, and it taught me the rigorous fundamentals of investment analysis. That foundation, combined with my experience managing a hedge fund, gives me a different perspective than most. It’s not just about picking stocks; it’s about understanding how markets work and how to navigate extreme volatility. My top-20 finish in the 2022 U.S. Investing Championships, with a positive return in a brutal market, is a good example of that. And while exciting, it’s important to remember that these results are from a securities contest and do not represent the performance of client assets, and that past performance is not indicative of future results.
Beyond that, I believe in a holistic approach. I’ve expanded our services over the years to help clients with their entire financial picture—investments, financial planning, and now estate planning. I even got the Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) designation after going through my own divorce, because I realized how important it was to help divorcing couples divide their assets fairly during such a difficult time.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Even people who know me well might be surprised by some of the things that shaped me. The fact that I was driving for Uber and doing Airbnb to get my company off the ground is one of them. It shows that I was willing to do whatever it took, no matter how difficult, to build this business from scratch.
Another detail that I’ve always found gratifying is when our hedge fund’s performance was being scrutinized by Neil Chelo, the same guy who helped take down Bernie Madoff. Our returns were so good that they were literally being put to the test against the best financial fraud detectives in the world, and they came out clean. That was a big moment for me, as it validated our strategy and integrity in a way that nothing else could.
And lastly, it may also be a good idea to add at the very end a disclaimer that financial advisors should share: Please remember that all investments involve risk, and there is no guarantee of profit. Past performance, whether in a hedge fund, a contest, or an investment account, is not a guarantee of future results.
Pricing:
- Financial Planning: $200/hour, free for investment management clients
- Investment Management: 1.0% of AUM per year, and goes to 0.80% after $1M
- Estate Plans: $1,000 for standard plans
- Divorce Asset Division: $200/hour, free for investment management clients
Contact Info:
- Website: https://parabolic.us/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParabolicAsset/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainiertrinidad/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/parabolic-asset-management-san-diego-financial-advisor-san-diego
Image Credits
The Monte Carlo simulation is from MoneyGuidePro.
