The Little Book of Trading: Trend Following Strategy for Big Winnings

Chapter Four

In a Land Far, Far Away from Wall Street

Kevin Bruce

YEARS AGO I INTERVIEWED FOR A TRADING JOB AT SALOMON Brothers in New York City. That was in 1994 and the firm was still very powerful. I still can recall seeing their massive football field–size trading floor at the top of World Trade Center Seven, which was lost on 9/11. At the time, long before I ever knew about trend following, that seemed to be the only way you could get rich trading.

Kevin Bruce is living proof that there is no need to be in New York, London, or Chicago—flaunting a sharp business suit and trading in a sky rise. Bruce is a small-town guy from Georgia with no ancestral connection to Wall Street, who has not only made it on Wall Street but conquered it. Heed his path.

Bruce spends his time far away tucked in quiet spots in Richmond, Virginia. He works out six times a week at his local YMCA, and still drives his 1996 Ford pickup. With a net worth of nearly $100 million, he prefers to live life just as he always did before making that fortune. He is low profile. Most people have no idea of his wealth. He says, “I guess that means I've done a pretty good job of just being me.”^*

He follows a trading strategy first developed while he was a graduate student in finance at the University of Georgia. His ...