Director

John H. Poteat Chair of Banking, Professor of Finance, and Director of the Center for the Study of Finance

Center for the Study of Finance

Dr. Trainor

Director, Professor of Finance

Dr. Trainor received his Ph.D. in Finance from Virginia Tech in 1994 and has been with ETSU since 2006. He is known in the financial area for his research on Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds and has been quoted in several financial outlets including WSJ, Reuters, Forbes, CNBC, among others. In November of 2018, an ETF with the ticker SWAN was introduced by Amplify to the NYSE garnering several hundred million based on his research with two co-authors in ameliorating downside risk. Two additional funds (ISWN and QSWN) have been similarly introduced. Dr. Trainor is a Fulbright scholar and has published more than 60 papers primarily within the investments field.

Dr. Trainor has served on ARGI Financial’s Investment board which manages approximately $2 billion in assets and continues to coordinate ETSU’s Tennessee Valley Authority Investment Challenge program which has outperformed the S&P 500 in 15 of the last 18 years.

Dr. Trainor is an avid distance runner with a couple of Tennessee age group records and likes to bike (pedal and motor), rock climb, and play (make noise on) the piano. He has been married for 20+ years with one daughter.

Latest Research
- Trainor, W. (2026). "Weekly and Monthly and Quarterly 'Leveraged ETFs', Oh My!" Journal of Beta Investment Strategies, Summer.
- W. Trainor, (2026). Beyond Volatility Decay: Correcting Relative Expected Return Estimates for Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 19(1), 1-20. ABDC rated B. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm19010020
  
  W. Trainor, S. Wilson, K. Kilgore (2025, Nov.). Effects of Held-to-Maturity Securities on Regional Bank Stock Prices, Journal of Business and Economic Studies, ABDC rated. https://doi.org/10.53462/Vol29i2A4
  
  Nan Li, Muzi Chen, Geng Li, Xiaoguang Yang, W. Trainor, (2025). "Impact of Digital Economy on Default Recovery: Evidence from China," Journal of International Economics and Finance, ABDC rated A. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iref.2025.104162
  
  Trainor, W. (2024). "S&P 500 Leveraged ETFs til the New Year," Seeking Alpha, Sept. 16, 2024, 1711 views, https://seekingalpha.com/article/4721454-s-and-p-500-leveraged-etfs-til-the-new-year
  
  Trainor, W. (2024). "Longer Reset Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds" for NAAIM, National Association of Active Investment Managers, Published Oct. 24, https://naaim.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/24-4-Active-Mgr-October-2024-final.pdf
  
  Trainor, W. (2024). "Longer Calendar Leveraged 2.0x SOX (Semiconductor) ETFs," Seeking Alpha, Nov. 11, 2024, https://seekingalpha.com/article/4735963-longer-calendar-leveraged-2-0x-sox-semi-conductor-etfs
  
  Trainor, W. & Traian, A. (2024). “Mitigating Loss Trauma: Cash Secured Put vs Dollar Cost Averaging,” Journal of Investment Consulting, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp 13-21.
  
  Trainor, W. (2023). “Swan’s Deep Dive Likely Over,” Seeking Alpha, Oct. 24, 2023.
  
  “Zero Commissions Effect on Stock Trading,” 2023, with Gary Shelley. Empirical Economics Letters.
- “Dynamic Z-score asset allocation to size, value, and industry return shocks,” with Gary Shelly, Business and Economic Research, Dec. 2022. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366476341_Dynamic_Z-score_Asset_Allocation_to_Size_Value_and_Industry_Return_Shocks
- “The Market Will Likely Go Lower but Waiting Might Not Work,” Seeking Alpha, Oct. 14, 2022.
- https://seekingalpha.com/article/4546691-market-will-likely-go-lower-but-waiting-might-not-work?mail_subject=you-have-9-new-followers-on-seeking-alpha&utm_campaign=alert-activity&utm_content=link-10&utm_medium=email&utm_source=seeking_alpha&v=1665747900#comment-93589345
- “Leveraged ETF Option Barbells,” with Eliza Wampler, The Journal of Beta Investment Strategies, Fall 2022.
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.3905/jbis.2022.1.012
- “Forecasting Volatility and Market Returns Using VIX and VIX Options,” with Spencer Stanley, Journal of Investment Strategies, Sept. 2021. Vol. 10, No.3. DOI: 10.21314/JOIS.2021.013
- “How Now Brown Cow in the Era of Low Yields,” Seeking Alpha, July 2021 https://seekingalpha.com/article/4438744-how-now-brown-cow-the-era-of-ultra-low-yields
- “Razer Could be a Sharp Buy,” Seeking Alpha, March 4, 2021. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4411307-razer-sharp-buy
- “Using Barbells to Lift your Risk-Adjusted Returns,” co-authored with Dan Cupkovic, Chris Brown, and Indu Chhachhi, Journal of Investment Consulting, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 40-47, 2020. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3753732#
- “Stock Market “Prediction Models” co-authored with G. Shelley and A. Traian, “Economics Bulletin,” Vol. 40 (2), p. A133-42, 2020. https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-20-00486.html
- “Singing SWAN Amid the Covid-19 Crisis,” Seeking Alpha, May, 11, 2020. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4346356-singing-swan-amid-covidminus-19-crisis
- “A Portfolio of Leveraged ETFs with Chris Brown and Indu Chhachhi,” Financial Services Review, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 35-48, 2020. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3272486
- “Collar the Market with Innovator’s Buffer ETFs,” Seeking Alpha, Dec. 5, 2019. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4310682-collar-market-innovators-buffer-etfs
- “A Barbell Strategy for Downside Protection,” with Chris Brown and Indu Chhachhi, Advisors Perspective, Sept. 2019. https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2019/09/16/a-barbell-strategy-for-downside-protection
- “Leaping Black Swans", co-authored with Chris Brown and Indu Chhachhi, Journal of Investing, Winter, 2019, also highlighted and summarized in Practical Applications: Portfolio Management Research, Vol. 2, 2019. https://www.pm-research.com/content/iijinvest/28/1/64
- "Mutual Fund Returns and the Reversal of the Size and Value Premiums," Global Journal of Accounting and Finance, co-authored with Changyue Xu. Vol. 3, No. 1, 2019. https://www.igbr.org/wp-content/uploads/articles/GJAF_Vol_3_No_1_2019-pgs-16-25.pdf
- “A SWAN Takes Flight,” Seeking Alpha, Nov. 12, 2018. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4221413-swan-takes-flight
- "The Buy-and-Hold Market Timer," Business Quest, 2018. https://www.westga.edu/~bquest/2018/buy&hold2018.pdf
- “Portfolio Insurance with Leveraged ETFs,” co-authored with J. George. Vol. 26, No. 4, Financial Services Review, 2017, also Top 10 monthly download on SSRI. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3055199
- “Leveraged ETFs: Multiplying by the Unknown,” Invited Article for The American Association of Individual Investors Journal. July 2017. https://www.aaii.com/journal/article/leveraged-etfs-multiplying-by-the-unknown
- “These Stocks are too Big, These are too Small, These are Just Right,” Seeking Alpha, August 2017.
- “Leveraged ETFs: When Four is Not More,” Journal of Investment Consulting, 2017. V18, No. 1, pp. 31-40. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3024969
- "Are Equities Too Low or Bonds Too High?” Seeking Alpha, July 20, 2016 https://seekingalpha.com/article/3989895-are-equities-too-low-bonds-too-high
- "Residual Income Approach to Valuing the S&P 500," Seeking Alpha, May 6, 2016. https://seekingalpha.com/article/3972266-valuing-s-and-p-500-using-residual-income
- "Leveraged ETF Option Strategies," Managerial Finance, co-authored with Richard Gregory. V. 42, No. 5, 2016. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MF-12-2014-0305/full/pdf