Editor's note: Sometimes, a taste of the Wall Street life is all it takes...

Yesterday, we shared the first part of the March 2020 cover story from our friends at online magazine American Consequences about Enrique Abeyta. The former hedge-fund manager made money in every major crisis of the last decade... and plans to do the same this time.

In today's Masters Series essay, we're sharing the rest of Enrique's story to this point. As you'll see, he's meticulous about everything he does... is passionate about heavy metal and tattoos... and loves sharing his unique insights with readers...

This 'Stone-Cold Moneymaker' Is Bringing His Innovative Approach to Main Street

By Laura Greaver, managing editor, American Consequences

"I'm very high-energy. I'm very high stimulus. That's actually partially an outcropping of what's called extended childhood trauma... It's basically PTSD. But what happens is, your body is hyper-stimulated for such a long period that it literally rewires your brain."

Enrique Abeyta's near compulsion with structure can be seen in his food journaling taken to an extreme... He has logged every single thing he's eaten or drank for the last 10 years in a spreadsheet.

He has a similar Excel spreadsheet for all the concerts he has attended... more than 750 so far in his life.

In keeping with the theme, Enrique is a fan of aggressive exercise... He practices Muay Thai kickboxing and is a long-distance runner, running more than 1,000 miles a year.

He has even completed five of the six major world marathons (New York, London, Boston, Tokyo, and Chicago), setting a new personal record at each one.

Much of Enrique's upper body is covered in tattoos. He estimates roughly 100 sessions of pain in the tattoo chair. His favorite tattoo is his daughter's name in Hebrew on the side of his head, and sometimes he likes to shave his hair into a mohawk to highlight the ink. (Gone are the days when he made sure his ink was hidden under long-sleeved suit jackets on Wall Street.)

His first tattoo was ONE LIFE across his chest – basically a reminder to take risks and have no regrets in life. Also, as Enrique puts it simply, "Do the work." Enrique combines hard work and big risks in his life... But there's no shortcut for putting in the hours. He told me, "In a negotiation, the guy who has prepared more usually wins."

Enrique has always been a fan of heavy metal and any "extreme music." Growing up in Phoenix may have helped foster this, as he tells me that "Arizona is the most metal state in the country."

Metal magazine Kerrang! supports his theory...

"Fueled by living in a landscape out of a sci-fi novel with temperatures that rival those of Hell itself, and fostered by marginalized groups living in a largely conservative area, Arizona's metal scene is not only creatively fertile, but also pure in its appreciation of heaviness."

In 2017, Enrique started a new business venture that combined three of his biggest passions: metal, tattoos, and business. He founded and is the current CEO of Project M Group, a digital media and e-commerce company focused on the metal and tattoo artforms. (Incidentally, the "M" stands for monetization, not metal.)

Project M purchased Revolver magazine, an aging pillar in the rock-publication industry. Enrique was a subscriber long before he owned it. "Our world of rock and metal is actually much bigger than people understand in terms of dollars... It's super vibrant... Yet the media that serves it is just kind of old school."

The plan was to refurbish and relaunch the magazine with an added digital ad agency layered on top. Since the acquisition, Revolver's audience has increased 1,500%.

"I'm very passionate about heavy music." Enrique finds loud metal music calming... Studies have shown that listening to extreme kinds of music helps to purge emotions like anger and depression, and it acts to sooth people with traumatic pasts.

He heard the band Tool playing in a record store in 1991 and fell in love... He has since seen Tool live in concert 47 times. Tool is known for their 15-minute-plus songs, and although Enrique tells me he doesn't actually listen to the lyrics, the music is like therapy to him...

"Their songs are like these giant narratives where you can really lose yourself. Look, I guess you can lose yourself in a Ramones song, but a Ramones song is like doing a shot... A Tool song is like smoking a cigar and drinking a fine wine or some absinthe for a whole evening."

Last year, fellow investor Whitney Tilson reached out to him with a new business opportunity. Whitney and Enrique are "kindred souls" who've been friends for the past decade.

At first glance, the two finance gurus appear quite different. Tilson, with zero tattoos and a fondness for easy-listening radio stations, had a much more conservative and traditional upbringing. Yet these two different paths led them both to the same place, and they share an intensity and passion for life and all things investing. Enrique is the yin to Tilson's yang...

Tilson started an investment-research business called Empire Financial Research, and the chance to write a trading newsletter was a perfect fit for Enrique.

Whitney enthusiastically introduced Enrique to his readers...

"Enrique is neither a value nor growth investor... He's a stone-cold moneymaker. He'll buy beaten-down, old economy big caps or high-growth tech small caps – he doesn't care. He just has a nose for stocks that will go up."

The investment-research industry was a natural pairing for Enrique. In addition to running a digital media company, he was the editor-in-chief of the second-largest newspaper at Wharton. Even in his hedge funds, he'd write informative and entertaining investor letters.

"I actually love education. I love media. I like engaging with people. I like entertaining and educating and informing and I like, you know, making people money. Those are all things that give me great pleasure and enjoyment."

And now, he's bringing that approach to Main Street, rather than simply keeping it on Wall Street.

"I like winning... I'm very mathematical. Also, it's nice to make money, too. But it's the chance to take all the stuff I've learned and all that experience and all those connections, with my very unique insight... and offer that to my readers."

He is quite philosophical when it comes to success. "It excites me that I can share my knowledge and unique perspective with readers. I legitimately enjoy it."

Looking to the future, Enrique's goals are fairly simple, perhaps because he's in such a good place in his life right now.

Professionally, he wants to continue to build the Empire business, focusing on new products and making subscribers money... He sees this as something he'll want to do for a long time.

Personally, his five- and 10-year plans are fairly simple: "Raise happy kids, keep my wife happy, stay healthy, and enjoy life." He tells me, "Life isn't just about making money. It's also about the things you find intellectually fascinating and growing as a human being."

He also wants to continue to explore other interests in business and life, like digital media, rock and metal music, tattooing, and Jewish studies. He's also ramping up his involvement with Native American charities. (Enrique is 11% Pueblo, which as he puts it, "doesn't mean s**t," but it's an area that really intrigues him.)

Despite his traumatic past, Enrique is one of the more optimistic people I've ever met...

"Every single moment that goes by is the single best moment in human history on almost every measure. There's a line that's suffering, starvation, violence, all these things. And then everything else is gravy... Today's the single best day that's ever existed for all of humanity."

Regards,

Laura Greaver

Editor's note: Our friends at Empire Financial Research just released a brand-new, documentary-style video chronicling Enrique's fascinating background... including his unique – and contrarian – approach to the markets. If you haven't watched it yet, make sure to do so before it goes offline TOMORROW. You can watch it right here. (You'll even get one of Enrique's favorite stock ideas just for tuning in.)