I bought my first stocks at the age of 16 in 1977, inspired by my father. That was the beginning of my financial career. In 1996 I started Technical Trader as the first Internet-based financial advisory service. Then founded BeursPlaza and finally Systems2follow. For me, investing is like a good game of chess. A wonderful activity that also makes money.
All my life the world of finance has played a leading role. I have to go very far back to when I bought my first shares, which was in 1977. The reason was that my father was very much into it at that time. After the stock market crash of 1987, I realized that I had to take a more systematic approach to trading. From then on, I started developing trading systems in Excel.
This led to the creation of a consulting service called Technical Trader. Together with Digitale Belegger, I was the first in the Netherlands with an investment website, even before big banks like ABN had their own websites. It became a great success, with The Option Trader in particular being a topper. Yet this success also brought challenges. I was busy with analyses all day and took my computer (no laptop then) with me on vacation. Eventually this led to a solid burnout in 2001.
In 2003 the blood started to crawl again and I founded Ruud's AEX . I was the first with a daily stock market commentary that was read by many people. In addition, I gave other writers a chance to share their stock market views. This led to the creation of Beursplaza, which was successful until the financial crisis in 2008. The following years were tough, and I saw the bottom of my coffers.
Meanwhile, software development had not stood still. In 2014, I started Tradershop, a platform where clients could have automatic signals executed for the first time. Later, this platform was renamed Systems2follow.
This year, my son Simeon took over the Systems2follow platform. I am now only active in the background, which gives me time to start trading myself again. I started a stock portfolio called Global Strategy. This is my way of continuing my passion for the financial markets, without the daily pressure of running a platform.
Ruud Hoefnagels
Founder of Systems2follow
