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
How ETFs Offer “Free Money” August 16, 2019- If you invest heavily in mutual funds, your portfolio may be costing you a lot more than you think. By comparison, ETF investing offers “free money.”
Accelerate Your Profits With Every Kind of ETF August 14, 2019- ETFs are a game changer. These key ETF trading strategies can help you achieve quick gains, protect you from market volatility and even generate income.
Is Income Investing Possible With ETFs? August 8, 2019- ETFs allow you to invest in a wide array of strategies, including dividend stocks. Learn why income ETFs are right for your portfolio and how to get on board.
Profit From Market Volatility: The Magic of Inverse ETFs August 6, 2019- Financial bubbles and market collapses can be profitable if you know what to look for and which investment strategies to use, like inverse leveraged ETFs.
Revolutionize the Way You Invest August 2, 2019- There’s a financial revolution taking place all around us, and it just keeps growing. Learn how ETF trading will open doors and change how you invest.
What Legos Can Teach You About ETF Investing July 30, 2019- Much like Lego building blocks allow kids to build anything they can imagine, ETF trading strategies allow you to custom build your ideal portfolio.
Is Emerging Markets Investing Dead? July 23, 2019- In previous decades, emerging markets enjoyed impressive growth. Nicholas Vardy explains why the investing picture looks a lot different in 2019. 
Should You Invest in the Country of the Future? July 18, 2019- The market is booming, but are Brazil ETFs and stocks a good buy? Nicholas Vardy explains why Brazil is “the country of the future” and may always be. 
How to Make Your Fortune in the Biotech Revolution July 16, 2019- Biotech investing can seem intimidating, but with the right approach you can make a fortune. Learn two key strategies for success in the healthcare sector.
How to Profit From the 100-Year Life July 11, 2019- Quality over quantity (or so the saying goes). But what if we could have both? That’s what ETF Strategist Nicholas Vardy hopes for investors in this revolution...