Experts

While I am the Chief Investment Strategist for The Oxford Club and Liberty Through Wealth today, I retired from Wall Street at the ripe old age of 43.

After 16 years as an investment advisor, research analyst and portfolio manager, I had gone from a net worth of approximately zero to financial independence.

That meant I was free to do whatever I wanted, wherever I wanted, with whomever I wanted.

It’s called total financial freedom. And I can tell you from experience, it’s a great feeling.

Since retiring from the securities industry, I’ve been busy living what I call “the second half of my life.”

I write about the financial markets for The Oxford Club, the world’s largest financial fellowship with more than 110,000 Members, and Liberty Through Wealth (formerly Investment U), a free daily e-letter with close to 300,000 subscribers.

I’m also in charge of three fast-paced trading services: The Momentum Alert, The Insider Alert and The True Value Alert.

And I’ve authored four national bestsellers: The Gone Fishin’ Portfolio, The Secret of Shelter Island, Beyond Wealth, and An Embarrassment of Riches.

Working as a writer instead of as a licensed investment advisor suits me well. I can give advice freely, and no one who heeds it has to wonder whether my real motive is to earn fees or commissions or “capture their assets.”

I can write what I want about the market – and the world – without a compliance officer scrutinizing my words. And readers don’t have to worry about the objectivity of my analysis.

I have no business relationships with the companies I cover, no investment banking colleagues seeking customers for new bond issues and secondary offerings, no reason to tell anything but the plain truth as I see it.

Many of these truths I’ve learned the hard way. You can save yourself a lot of trouble – not to mention a boatload of money – by learning from my personal experience.

(I made the dumb mistakes early in my career, so you don’t have to.)

In my Liberty Through Wealth columns, you’ll learn how to successfully manage your money yourself, using simple yet highly sophisticated strategies to increase your returns, reduce your risk, avoid Wall Street’s mountain of fees and keep the taxman at bay.

No one cares more about your money than you do. You should manage it yourself.

With Liberty Through Wealth, you can – and enjoy the total financial freedom that comes with it.

Articles by Alex

• This Quality Leads to Excellence… in Life and in Investing July 6, 2020-
  How do you become a better investor, employee or partner? Learning to accept criticism could be the key to self-improvement and a wealthy lifestyle.
• What You Should Really Celebrate Tomorrow July 3, 2020-
  Despite media negativity and common perceptions, America is doing great. Today, Alexander Green discusses the true wealth that we have to celebrate.
• Why Traders Ignore the Small Stocks With the Best Potential June 26, 2020-
  Inexperienced traders often go after the biggest stocks - Apple, Amazon, etc. - but they are missing out on major potential by ignoring the small stocks.
• The Media Got COVID Wrong… But Investors Got It Right June 22, 2020-
  The mainstream media has nothing but gloom-and-doom predictions, but investors who ignored them have capitalized on a historic rally in the markets.
• Fortune Favors the Brave… and So Does the Stock Market June 19, 2020-
  As the coronavirus spread and the market plunged, many investors and analysts said we were headed for a depression. Savvy wealth builders knew otherwise.
• All Great Investors Have These Two Qualities June 15, 2020-
  Want to achieve long-term investment success? Establishing the correct mindset - and sticking to it - is a key element in building wealth.
• Why the Market Really Tanked Yesterday June 12, 2020-
  Market timing is impossible, as evidenced by yesterday’s market sell-off. The media blames a spike in coronavirus cases, but here’s what really happened.
• Three Steps Investors Must Take Now June 8, 2020-
  The market has put on a furious rally since hitting its low. If you’re ready to buy, make sure you do these three things first for wealth preservation.
• The Secret of Great Wealth… and of Life June 5, 2020-
  Although many people are financially stressed due to the pandemic, healthy financial habits will help - along with understanding what being wealthy means.
• The Coronavirus, the Market… and Rational Exuberance June 1, 2020-
  Some investors have argued that we are in a bubble right now - that stock valuations are unjustified. But market analysis shows that they’re mistaken.

More articles by Alex >>

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

• 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...
• How the .400 Batting Average in Baseball Explains Soros’ and Buffett’s Fading Returns June 25, 2020-
  Warren Buffett and George Soros have long been hailed as two of the world’s greatest investors, but their returns have lagged for years. Here’s why.
• How “Dumb Money” Beat the Wall Street Experts June 23, 2020-
  Wall Street’s top money managers are scratching their heads. How did everyday investors get the market so right when the experts got it so wrong?
• Swing Trading: Due for a Strong Bounce June 18, 2020-
  Quantitative investing systems - including swing trading - offer a major advantage. In today’s video, we see a prime example that’s due for a strong bounce.
• Secrets of Speculation From Wall Street’s Greatest “Stock Operator” June 16, 2020-
  We can learn a lot from Wall Street’s classic books, even those closing in on 100 years of publication. Here are some classic financial freedom quotes.
• Charlie Munger’s Checklist for Investing June 11, 2020-
  Billionaire Charlie Munger is a compelling character with a lot to teach investors. Learn how to grow your wealth with his investment checklist.
• The Sector Immune to COVID-19 June 9, 2020-
  The COVID-19 crisis has shaped our lives forever. One major change is the shift to working from home, which has given a big boost to the tech sector.
• Will This Strategy Make You as Rich as Elon Musk? June 4, 2020-
  Elon Musk has achieved incredible wealth that may seem impossible to average investors. But there is a strategy that’s paying off handsomely right now.
• Make Your Fortune From “Variant Perception” June 2, 2020-
  The market is in a constant ebb and flow, regularly influenced by the latest headlines. Variant perception offers a different investment strategy.

More articles by Nicholas >>

Mark Morgan Ford is a lifelong practitioner of writing, teaching, entrepreneurship, martial arts and philanthropy.

He has been writing and publishing since 1962 when, at age 12, he sold an underground booklet titled Excuses for the Amateur to his fifth-grade peers. Since then, he has written more than two dozen books on business, entrepreneurship and wealth building (several of which were New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers), as well as half a dozen books on rhetoric and three books of poetry. He has also written and produced four feature-length movies.

From 2000 to 2010, he posted more than 3,000 essays on his Early to Rise blog, which, at one time, had a circulation of nearly a million readers. From 2010 to 2015, he retired from all but one of his business concerns and created an educational curriculum on wealth building. This curriculum – which consists of thousands of pages of advice and instruction – lives in the Wealth Sciences Academy, an organization whose goal is to encourage industry, entrepreneurship and prudent financial management for the “not yet wealthy.”

As an entrepreneur, he has been involved in dozens of multimillion-dollar businesses, including one whose revenues exceeded $100 million and another that broke the billion-dollar mark. His current business interests include the Agora companies (a large international publishing group), Ford Fine Art (a broker of Latin American and contemporary fine art in Miami, Nicaragua and Delray Beach), AWAI (a company that teaches writing and graphic arts), Lion’s Kill (a movie production business) and Palimi (a business consulting company).

As a real estate investor, he has been involved in more than a hundred projects and developments, from single-family homes to apartment buildings, office buildings and resort communities. Travel & Leisure magazine recently voted the hotel facility in one of these resort communities – Rancho Santana on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua – “one of the 100 best in the world.”

A student of martial arts since 1998, Ford has won three Naga championships. He received his black belt from Marcel Ferreira in 2015.

His charitable activities include FunLimon, a community development facility across the street from Rancho Santana that provides a range of services, including an athletic program, a microlending program, a trade school and a literacy school.

He has attempted to retire four times in his career, never successfully. His current goal is to give away 90% of his wealth in the next decade.

Articles by Mark

• A Three-Step Strategy for Dealing With the Fear of Failure July 1, 2020-
  Potential entrepreneurs hesitate because they are afraid to fail. Mark Ford explains how to overcome that fear and take steps toward wealth accumulation.
• Facts and Fallacies About Building Wealth June 24, 2020-
  Many commonly accepted “facts” about building wealth are actually fallacies. Smart investors should ignore these myths and adopt a variety of strategies.
• You Can Live a Rich Life While Building Wealth June 3, 2020-
  Some people believe they have to save every penny, while others spend everything they earn. But it is possible to live a rich life while building wealth.
• How to Get Unstuck May 27, 2020-
  It happens to all of us. You make a commitment, but then you get stuck. Today, Mark Ford shares his foolproof method to get “unstuck.”
• How to Master Your Emotions and Make Good Investment Decisions May 13, 2020-
  Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Is either tendency hindering your ability to achieve career success and attain a rich life? If so, here’s what to do.
• Four Ways to Be Rich – Rate Yourself Now May 6, 2020-
  Being "rich" usually refers to financial wealth, but there are other ways you can be rich that will also improve your life.
• These Activities Will Improve Your Life April 28, 2020-
  If you’ve found yourself with a lot more free time on your hands lately, here are a few tips to make sure you are using it wisely to create a rich life.
• Smelling the Roses April 15, 2020-
  You need money - lots of money - to own the symbols of wealth. But to get the feeling of wealth and lead a rich life, you don’t need to spend much at all...
• Take These Four Vital Steps When Disaster Strikes April 8, 2020-
  Life dishes out disasters big and small all the time. How we react to them can have a huge impact on how successful we are on our path to true wealth.
• How to Survive and Profit From Black Swan Events March 11, 2020-
  As a wealth builder, you have a choice. Try to predict the future (impossible) or learn how to protect yourself and even profit from adverse events.

More articles by Mark >>

Liberty Through Wealth Advisory Panelist Mark Skousen relates to Benjamin Franklin in more ways than one.

Like Franklin, Mark has a rags-to-riches story. He grew up in Portland, Oregon, in a family of 10 children. And after finishing school, he became a successful entrepreneur and publisher.

Like Franklin, Mark has a doctorate (in economics and monetary history), which he earned from George Washington University. In addition to having taught economics and finance at Columbia Business School, Mark is currently the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Professor at Chapman University in California.

Franklin published the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard’s Almanac. Since 1980, Mark has been the editor-in-chief of the award-winning investment newsletter Forecasts & Strategies.

Franklin was a diplomat and secret negotiator with the French and other allies. Mark was an economic analyst for the CIA in the early ’70s.

Like Franklin, Mark is a successful author and publisher of books, including The Maxims of Wall Street and Investing in One Lesson. In 2006, upon the 300th anniversary of Franklin’s birth, he and his wife completed Franklin’s famously unfinished autobiography under the title, The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Volume Two: 1757-1790).

Like Franklin, Mark is a true believer in reason, self-determination, hard work and liberty. He is the founder of FreedomFest, an annual gathering in Las Vegas of the freedom movement from around the world.

And finally, like Franklin, Mark is married with five children and five grandchildren. He’s also lived abroad in eight countries and visited more than 77.

With all these uncanny comparisons, it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that not only does Mark relate to our revered founding father but he is, in fact, an eighth-generation direct descendant of Franklin himself.

From 2005 to 2007, Mark was the Chairman of Investment U, the predecessor of Liberty Through Wealth. It’s given that lineage that he continues to write for it today as a monthly contributor.

Articles by Mark

• Meeting the Father of Modern Portfolio Theory: His No. 1 Investment Now June 17, 2020-
  What could a finance article published in 1952 possibly teach us about modern portfolio management and how to handle a market crash? As it turns out... a lot.
• Flight to Safety: What Works, What Doesn’t March 25, 2020-
  In a market crash like the one we’ve been experiencing, there are certain flights to safety that wealth builders can take. Here’s what’s working right now.
• A Democratic Sweep in November Could Be the End of the Bull Market February 20, 2020-
  Democratic presidential candidates have been attacking Wall Street left and right. If a Democrat wins, it will mean trouble for wealth builders.
• Why the Hot Hand of Investing Never Lasts January 29, 2020-
  Why can’t the market’s top hedge fund managers stay on top for long? There are a few reasons, and they’re important to know if you want to grow your wealth.
• 2020 Vision: What Could Go Wrong? December 30, 2019-
  The 2020 election could have major implications for our economy and the stock market. Here’s what you can do to protect yourself and grow your wealth.
• Paul Volcker’s Gift That Keeps On Giving December 18, 2019-
  If there is one person we should thank for the lengthy bull market we’ve been enjoying, it’s Paul Volcker. Today, we examine his legacy of financial economics.
• Invest in Stocks or Start a Business? Talk to Chuck! October 23, 2019-
  What’s the secret of wealth, starting your own business or investing in stocks? Contributor Mark Skousen sat down with Charles Schwab himself to find out.
• Warren Buffett’s Success Is Due to Skill, Talent and Experience September 25, 2019-
  Although some people believe Warren Buffett’s luck may be running out, others feel that his investment strategies will stand the test of time.
• Gold Finally Makes a Comeback… For Good? August 28, 2019-
  It’s been a long time since gold has seen the spotlight. Is it finally here to stay? Maybe not, but investors can access future profits with a gold ETF.
• Kevin O’Leary on the “Cold Hard Truth” About Money and Investing July 24, 2019-
  At this year’s FreedomFest, Kevin O’Leary shared his “cold hard truth.” Mark Skousen discusses which of O’Leary’s ideas resonate for building wealth.

More articles by Mark >>