ABOUT DAVID

David’s story begins where he was born and raised in Miami, FL to a Cuban mother and Persian father. At an early age he excelled in baseball, track and chess. David later attended the University of Florida where he studied architecture. At UF David studied abroad at the Vicenza Institute of Architecture in Italy and graduated magna cum laude. After UF, David went to UCLA where he received his masters degree in architecture. At UCLA A.UD (Architecture + Urban Design) he was selected to study under Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne for the development of the Haiti Now Project with the Now Institute for his final year. Before graduate school, David worked with Hands On Disaster Response and AllHandsandHearts.org to spearhead the construction of schools in Indonesia and Haiti after natural disasters devasted both areas.

Once graduated from UCLA, David worked in the architecture field and later as a private tutor in Beverly Hills. While working as a tutor, David prioritized studying the financial markets with a concentration on short selling small cap stocks. During 2020, David saw opportunity on the short side as many small cap stocks went on exponential short term parabolic runs and subsequently crashed in a short amount of time. David was able to capitalize on the volatility this opportunity presented and re-invested his gains into furthering his education by starting a short selling focused podcast. David then relocated to San Juan, Puerto Rico where he was one of the first traders at TradeSpace trading offices in Santurce. At TradeSpace, David was able to network and learn from many great traders such as Adam Gefvert of White Diamond Research and Sang Lucci. At TradeSpace, David worked countless hours to further master his craft and also stepped into the world of short reporting and exposing bad companies.

One of the companies David exposed as a lead investigator with White Diamond Research was Flora Growth [NASDAQ: FLGC]. David discovered the massive spam & text message campaigns Flora Growth was using to pump their stock to high prices which prompted him to take a deep dive into researching the company and spotting many red flags. David then flew from Puerto Rico to Bucaramanga, Colombia where he rented a motorbike and went on a 3 hour journey up a mountain to a remote area called Finca Cantalavieja, the shantytown where the Flora Growth cultivation facility was located. At the site, David documented his confrontation with Flora Growth executive Javier Franco which gained notoriety and was one of the key pieces of evidence in the short report. David was at Flora Growth’s cultivation facility while the stock was at an all time high of $21.45. Days later after the short report was published the stock collapsed. FLGC remains one of the top short report exposés of the past few years and arguably one of the most successful short reports of 2021.

When David wasn’t busy trading and helping with short reports he is focused on interviewing top traders from around the world on The Friendly Bear Podcast – a podcast with an emphasis on short side focused traders, authors of major publications in the trading space as well as all types of market participants. David was able to leverage his connections on the podcast to get invited to many trading conferences and events all over the world. David has grown the podcast to attract many savvy investors, successful traders and high net worth individuals from all over the globe as part of the listening fanbase. David has also continued to hone his skills and is currently one of the top performing verified traders on Kinfo. David sees himself continuing to put in as much work as it takes to become one of the best traders in the world and looks forward to continuing to put out quality content for his fans on the podcast.