Based in Europe, Nicholas is a widely recognized expert on exchange-traded funds and an accomplished investment expert. Nicholas has been a regular commentator on CNN International and Fox Business Network. He has also been cited in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Fox Business News, CBS MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance and MSN Money Central.
Here’s a little more about the journey that led him to you…
Growing up in Pittsburgh, Nicholas earned spending money by selling flavored ice cubes at Little League baseball games, delivering the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at 5:00 a.m. and shoveling snow during the harsh Pennsylvania winters.
For a kid from the Rust Belt who was a big Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers fan, he also lived a double life. He spent his summers studying in West Germany (before unification), France, Italy and communist Hungary on scholarships he diligently applied for while in high school.
I was lucky. My parents made me aware of opportunities other kids couldn’t even dream about. Every summer, I had the chance to dip into a completely different language, reality and culture. During the bad old days of the Cold War, not a lot of kids from the United States were spending their summers in Europe, let alone behind the Iron Curtain. It was as if I got to visit another planet each summer. And then I spent the school year back on planet earth.
Luckily, this was the kind of unusual background that top colleges were looking for.
Nicholas earned a B.A. in both economics and history and an M.A. in history in less than four years from Stanford University.
There, he discovered the work of free market economist Friedrich Hayek and wrote two theses on his work.
That work put him on track to win a Fulbright scholarship to the Karl Marx University of Economics in Budapest, making him one of the first Fulbright scholars to study behind the Iron Curtain.
Assuming his academic interests in the Soviet Union and centrally planned economies was a professional dead-end, he turned down an economics Ph.D scholarship to Oxford University and went on to attend Harvard Law School instead.
Truth be told, he wasn’t a big fan of the law. Compared with the exciting world of clashing economic ideals, law seemed pedestrian and boring. Harvard proved better fit for his classmates, including future president Barack Obama and good friend, now Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch.
As luck would have it, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down before he graduated. Suddenly, Eastern Europe and Russia were open for business.
After Harvard, he joined the world’s largest law firm, which had just opened offices in Eastern Europe. His mission – as he put it then – was to “help dismantle centrally planned economies.”
For nearly four years, he worked on the privatizations of some of the leading banks, oil companies and telecom companies in the region, listing them on regional stock exchanges. It’s this work that first exposed him to the fascinating world of investing.
Nicholas then set out to learn all he could about finance and embarked on a successful and varied business career, including launching several investment funds in Europe, founding a London-based roundtable of leading investment experts like Steve Forbes and Nassim Taleb, and writing for Eagle Publishing’s The Global Guru for 12 years alongside four other investment advisory newsletters.
In January 2018, Nicholas became The Oxford Club’s first and only ETF strategist, writing for the daily Liberty Through Wealth e-letter (formerly Investment U) and our flagship newsletter, The Oxford Communiqué. He is also the Editor of the new ETF trading service, Oxford Wealth Accelerator.
Outside of work, Nicholas focuses on managing his personal investments and his growing family.
Articles by Nicholas
One of Our Fastest Double-Digit Gains Ever July 30, 2020- Today we’re sharing one of Nicholas Vardy's quickest and most profitable swing trades to date.
How to Profit From COVID-19 Vaccine Companies July 28, 2020- Profiting from the COVID-19 vaccine isn’t a simple task with so many companies fighting to be the first with a viable vaccine... But there are several front-runners to be aware of.
What Poker Players Can Teach You About Successful Trading July 23, 2020- The most important “secret” behind successful trading is remarkably straightforward. Yet very few investors know about it.
How to Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom July 21, 2020- Many Americans dream of financial freedom - no boss, no long hours and no restrictions. Here’s how to make that dream a reality.- All Signs Point to This Swing Trade Going Up July 16, 2020- Nicholas Vardy’s latest swing trade recommendation is moving in a promising pattern... and no fewer than six other indicators are screaming for you to get in on this stock.
Learn From Warren Buffett’s Bad Investments July 14, 2020- The coronavirus crisis has not been kind to Warren Buffett. But his investing track record was lagging even before this pandemic began.
The World’s Most Influential Cities July 9, 2020- Cities account for 23% of the world’s population. But it takes more than a large population for a city to become a thriving and influential metropolis.
Inside the Minds of the Ultra-Wealthy July 7, 2020- The richest people in America share some interesting qualities... and some of them might surprise you.
A Textbook Example of a Swing Trade July 2, 2020- A recent Oxford Swing Trader recommendation generated huge returns in just a few days. This is a textbook example of how swing trades can book big profits.
My Favorite Contrarian Indicator June 30, 2020- If you buy a stock for cheap and it recovers, you can make a lot of money. That’s why you should go against the grain and keep an eye out for this key buy signal...