Salem Abraham from Abraham Trading Company

Today's guest is Salem Abraham from Abraham Trading Company

Salem started his investing career as a futures trader, using quantitative models to trade global futures markets beginning in 1987. In 1999, Salem and the Abraham Trading team became the first company in the world to send computer-generated orders electronically to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Throughout his career, Salem has managed investments in stocks, bonds, options, derivatives, and private equity. He has held full membership seats at both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. Salem is also highly experienced in orchards, farmland, ranchland, wind, water, and energy investments. His first investment experiences were shared with his grandfather, who employed him to buy and sell distressed minerals and ranches in the Texas Panhandle in the late 80s. In total, Salem has bought and sold more than 200,000 acres of land and resources. He manages investments in oil and gas properties, wind rights and residential, commercial, and agricultural real estate properties.

Salem has served on nonprofit investment boards for over 25 years. From 1995 to 2014, he served on the Amarillo Area Foundation Investment Committee. Since 2004, he has served on the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Investment Committee. He assists with both large and small nonprofit endowments, with portfolios ranging from $1 million to over $4 billion in assets. His experiences with large and small institutional investors have provided insights into the unique mandates and challenges of managing foundation and endowment portfolios of all sizes. The strategy for the Abraham Fortress Fund was originally used for Salem's half of the Pickens-Abraham Foundation that he started with T. Boone Pickens in 2008. The foundation provided college scholarships to accomplished graduating seniors in the Texas Panhandle. After the death of T. Boone Pickens in September of 2019,  the Pickens Abraham Foundation was divided, with half of the funds going to the T. Boone Pickens Foundation and half of the funds going to the Salem & Ruth Ann Abraham Foundation. The Salem and Ruth Ann Abraham Foundation is managed by Salem and is invested in the Abraham Fortress Fund.

Salem has been featured in Michael Covel's books The Complete TurtleTrader and Trend Following. He has also appeared in Bloomberg Markets, Absolute Return, Barron's, and the New York Times. Salem continues to lead the research efforts at Abraham Trading Company. He resides with his family in Canadian, Texas.