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
Investing With the Wisdom of Crowds January 17, 2019 - Each investment strategy has its day, and the challenge is to combine the insights of different strategies into a single investment portfolio.
The Quirky Father of Modern Economics January 15, 2019 - Americans recognize 1776 as the year the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. But there’s another reason 1776 is a turning point in history...
Did These Funds Crack the Market’s Code? January 9, 2019 - A group of elite hedge funds had a great 2018, despite turbulence in the markets. What’s the secret to their success?
My “Never Sell” Portfolio January 8, 2019 - At the close of 2018, I took some time to reflect on the events of the year and, as I surveyed my portfolio, I had an epiphany.
Three Lessons From a Turbulent 2018 January 3, 2019 - At times like this, I like to reflect on some of the timeless lessons I have learned over my 20-year investing career.
Why the U.S. Stock Market Will Rally 20% in 2019 December 31, 2018 - I find the generally negative consensus reassuring to my contrarian prediction for 2019: The U.S. stock market will rebound by at least 20% over the next 12 months.
Accelerate Your Wealth With This “Portfolio of Strategies” December 20, 2018 - According to Financial Times, an astonishing 99% of actively managed U.S. equity funds trailed the market over a 10-year period.
Invest Royally With the Dividend Aristocrats December 18, 2018 - It should come as no surprise that investing in these companies has beaten the S&P 500 over many years.
Why You Should Try Everything Once… Even When Investing December 7, 2018 - It’s a big investment world out there. Why limit yourself to buying and holding only U.S. stocks? 
Report From The Oxford Club’s Austrian Wealth Retreat December 4, 2018 - I’ve just returned from Vienna and The Oxford Club’s Austrian Wealth Retreat. Here’s what we discussed...
