Ethan Mercer (pen name)

Ethan Mercer is a pen name. The person behind it is a software and financial-systems professional with more than ten years of experience building and securing accounting, payments, and financial systems at startups. The name is a pseudonym used to protect personal privacy, and we would rather say so up front than let you wonder.

What that background qualifies Ethan to write about

Years inside accounting and payments systems mean Ethan reads financial statements the way the people who produce them do: how revenue is recognized, how cash actually moves, where fees hide, and how a filing differs from the story around it. That shapes the topics here: value investing, cash flow, fees and costs, and how everyday investing mechanics work.

What it does not

Ethan is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, CFA, CFP, CPA, or attorney, and does not give personalized advice. We cannot ask you to trust a credential we do not have. You can verify our work instead, because the claims, numbers, and worked examples in each article are meant to point back to sources you can open yourself.

Why you can check the work without trusting the name

• Figures and rules should link to primary sources such as SEC filings, FINRA and Investor.gov guidance, the Federal Reserve, and index and fund provider research.
• Calculations show their inputs, so you can reproduce them.
• Stock analysis pages come from a published, rules-based method applied identically to every company, with no hand-picked favorites.
• The editorial standards page lists how we source, update, correct, and fund the site, including where older articles fall short.

Accountability

Ethan writes, edits, and is responsible for each article. There is no outside expert review board, and we do not claim one. Trendshare is operated by Big Blue Marble, LLC (see About), and errors can be reported to a real inbox that is read and answered.

What Ethan writes about

• Value investing explanations and guidance, especially for novices
• Practical investing guides for beginners and DIY investors
• Fee comparisons and calculators (broker fees, advisory fees)
• Portfolio construction basics and tax-aware investing, at the level of concepts rather than individual tax advice
• How to read funds and costs, and how to choose low-cost options

Articles by Ethan Mercer

Insider Buying as a Conviction Signal

How to Buy Litecoin (2026)

Is Dogecoin a Good Investment? (2026)

Tax-Optimized Value Investing

Should Value Investors Pursue High-Yield Stocks?

Contact and Corrections

To report an error or an outdated figure in one of Ethan's articles, please email editorial@trendshare.org and name the article. Factual corrections are made once verified, and each article shows the date it was last updated. See the editorial standards for how corrections work.