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
My Three Favorite Mental Models of Investing May 23, 2019- Mental models are an excellent way to organize our thoughts and understand our world. Learn how three mental models can help you find the way to wealth.
Know When to Fold ‘Em: The Importance of Exits in Trading May 22, 2019- The market is unpredictable, and what you buy is only a small part of profitable trading. As part of your wealth-planning strategy, you must know your exit. 
Why Can’t the Smart Money Beat the Market? May 16, 2019- Over the past 10 years, hedge funds have underperformed the S&P 500. Nicholas Vardy explains why the same old investment strategies don’t work anymore. 
Should You Invest in Thematic ETFs? May 14, 2019- ETFs are hot right now. Thematic ETFs allow you to invest based on your social, political and demographic interests, but are they worth investing in? 
Should You Stick With Buffett and Berkshire? May 9, 2019- Berkshire Hathaway is enduring its worst stretch in history, causing Warren Buffett to reassess his investment strategies. Is Berkshire still a safe bet?
Is a Stanford Degree the World’s Worst Investment? May 7, 2019- The recent college admissions scandal has left Nicholas Vardy scratching his head. Does the high price tag make a Stanford degree a terrible investment? 
Are We on the Verge of a Market Melt-Up? April 30, 2019- After a terrible December, the market is heading for a rally thanks to global financial economics. What does this mean for investors?
Use This Red-Hot Strategy to Beat the Market April 25, 2019- Ready to cash in on one of today’s hottest investment strategies? Thanks to the advent of smart beta ETFs, it’s easier than ever.
How Silicon Valley Beat Buffett April 23, 2019- Silicon Valley is hot, and the U.S. tech sector is enjoying a resurgence. Will the exponential growth driving the tech sector beat traditional value investing over the long term?
What Rip Van Winkle Can Teach You About Investing April 18, 2019- You may think that Rip Van Winkle has nothing to do with investing, but imagine falling asleep for just a year. What would the market look like when you awoke?