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 best-sellers: 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

• What You Ought to Do as a Successful Investor July 19, 2019-
  Many investors don’t find success because they’re going about things the wrong way. Learn about the three things you should do to grow your wealth.
• The Connection Between Wealth Loss and Health Loss July 15, 2019-
  Many of us take steps to protect our health, but do you do the same for your wealth? Recent studies show that a significant loss can have a major impact.
• Here’s Why You Should Expect a Trade Deal Soon July 10, 2019-
  One economist’s perceptions and market analysis are so flawed that they serve as nearly perfect contrarian indicators. Here’s why he’s wrong again.
• It’s Time for Stock Investors to Celebrate… and Exercise Caution July 8, 2019-
  There is no way to know when this bull market will end, so make sure you take the proper steps to grow your wealth and protect your gains in the future.
• Are Corporate Insiders Shouting “Buy”? July 5, 2019-
  Investors can get themselves in a panic if they don’t understand what insider buying signals are really saying. Alex Green explains how to interpret them.
• What You Should Truly Celebrate Today July 4, 2019-
  Despite media negativity and common perceptions, America is doing great. Today, Alexander Green discusses the true wealth that we have to celebrate.
• How the Media Makes You Ignorant and Confused… Not Rich July 1, 2019-
  Some people are consumed with “staying on top of the news,” but Alexander Green explains why media consumption is not the way to wealth.
• What Warren Buffett Knows… and You Don’t June 28, 2019-
  Marketers may promise to help you “invest like Buffett.” That’s not necessary, but you can learn a great deal from him about financial economics.
• The Financial Threat of Free-Lunchism June 24, 2019-
  Politicians today are proposing many “free lunches” without any consideration of financial economics and the impact on the national debt.
• How the Rich Keep Getting Richer June 21, 2019-
  Half of Americans have a negative net worth. Pundits think capitalism is to blame, but Alex Green reveals the truth behind wealth and power.

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

• 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...
• What a “Double Play” of 30% Cryptocurrency Gains Can Teach You About ETFs July 9, 2019-
  ETFs are sophisticated financial instruments that allow you to invest in almost anything, anywhere, over any period - as easily as you can invest in a stock.
• The Most Divisive Era in American History July 2, 2019-
  The most divisive era in American history saw a major clash between the establishment and populists. What are the implications for wealth and power?
• Profiting From the “Everything Rally” June 25, 2019-
  Even as U.S. stocks and bonds soar to record highs, market analysis remains bearish. Today, Nicholas Vardy explains what market sentiment tells us.
• Why It’s Time to Dump P.C. Investing June 20, 2019-
  These days, Americans are consumed with being “woke” and politically correct - but is it at the expense of building wealth and investment success?
• My Favorite Global Stock Market ETF of 2019 June 18, 2019-
  Recent reform and an index promotion point to a coming boom for this market. Learn why Nicholas Vardy recommends adding it to your ETF portfolio.
• Don’t Invest in Silicon Valley’s Unicorns June 13, 2019-
  Unicorns are running amok across the globe. Before you put too much faith in their magic formula, read what Nicholas Vardy has to say about tech investing.
• Why Henry Ford Was Wrong About History June 11, 2019-
  Successful investors and entrepreneurs may eschew history in favor of focusing on the present, but today Nicholas Vardy explains why that’s the wrong 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 best-sellers), 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. He donated the curriculum – which consisted of thousands of pages of advice and instruction – to the Wealth Science Institute, a non-profit 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

• Retirement: Don’t Make This Common but Very Costly Mistake! July 17, 2019-
  Retirement planning can be complicated, and many retirees make one common mistake. Mark Ford explains how to avoid it and plan for a happy retirement.
• A Three-Step Strategy for Dealing With the Fear of Failure July 3, 2019-
  Potential entrepreneurs hesitate because they are afraid to fail. Mark Ford explains how to overcome that fear and take steps toward wealth accumulation.
• Here’s Why I’ll Never Use a Discount Broker June 26, 2019-
  A discount broker may seem like the best (cheapest) way to go, but Mark Ford explains why he trusts his full-service broker as a wealth advisor.
• Becoming Rich as Fast as You Can, Part 2 June 12, 2019-
  If you want to get rich, you need to understand the importance of moneymaking ideas and how they can help you along the journey to getting rich.
• Becoming Rich as Fast as You Can, Part 1 June 5, 2019-
  Many people want to learn how to get rich quick. Today, Mark Ford explains how to earn money and increase your wealth in a consistent, realistic way.
• How to Get Unstuck May 29, 2019-
  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.”
• Take These Four Vital Steps When Disaster Strikes May 15, 2019-
  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.
• Do These Five Things… and Cut the Learning Curve in Half May 1, 2019-
  New entrepreneurs often encounter similar challenges when starting out: They know nothing about their business. But one solution can provide years of learning.
• How a $10 Bill Made Me Richer Than All My Friends April 17, 2019-
  I made this wealth-building commandment No. 1: Get a little bit richer every day.
• How to Survive and Profit From Black Swan Events April 10, 2019-
  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.

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

• Is the No. 1 Goal to Maximize the Stock Price? June 27, 2019-
  Some business leaders feel it should be all about making money for the shareholders, while others seek a higher purpose. Which approach is best?
• The Inside Story From Two Billionaire Entrepreneurs May 24, 2019-
  Two of the world’s most creative billionaire entrepreneurs have some interesting advice to share about entrepreneurship and building wealth.
• Should You Invest on a Hunch? April 24, 2019-
  Sometimes taking a gamble on a sports bet pays off, but can you trust your gut instincts when it comes to investing? Many Wall Street veterans offer similar advice...
• Bull Markets Are Lasting Longer and Getting Stronger March 13, 2019-
  Ten years ago marked the beginning of the longest bull market on record.
• Will China Survive Its Crisis? An Interview With the Legendary Mark Mobius February 20, 2019-
  Mark Mobius has survived and prospered in the toughest place to invest in the world: emerging markets.
• The Strong Case for Dividend Stocks January 23, 2019-
  The general belief is companies that have publicly announced a high and growing dividend policy are likely to work hard to continue their income policy.
• The Best Investment Vehicle Ever Invented December 21, 2018-
  The radical changes on Wall Street didn’t end in the 1970s. In fact, in 1993 came another revolution...
• Will Gridlock on Capitol Hill Sink the Mother of All Bull Markets? November 16, 2018-
  There are many reasons to be optimistic. A divided Congress has been historically well received by Wall Street, GDP is growing at 4% and gross output is growing even faster.
• Are We Headed for Another Crash and Great Recession? October 17, 2018-
  I’ve learned that Armageddon can be postponed time and time again. But it may be time to sound the alarm.
• What’s the Best Safe Haven During a Financial Crisis? September 11, 2018-
  For us innocent investors, what is the best way to protect ourselves in anticipation of a short-term crisis or stock market crash?