I bought my first shares at the age of 16 (1977), inspired by my father. That was the start of my financial career. In 1996, I started Technical Trader, the first financial advisory service via the internet. I then founded BeursPlaza and finally Systems2follow. For me, investing is like a good game of chess. It's a wonderful activity that also makes money.
The financial world has played a major role in my entire life. I have to go back a long way to the moment I bought my first shares, which was in 1977. The reason was that my father was already very involved in it at the time. Together, we experienced the ups and downs of the market. After the stock market crash of 1987, I realized that I needed to take a more systematic approach to trading. From that moment on, I started developing trading systems in Excel.
This led to the establishment of an advisory service called Technical Trader. Together with Digitale Belegger, I was one of the first in the Netherlands to have an investment website, even before major banks such as ABN had their own websites. It became a huge success, with De Optie Trader being particularly popular. However, this success also brought challenges. I spent all day doing analyses and took my computer (not a laptop at the time) with me on vacation. Ultimately, this led to severe burnout in 2001.
In 2003, I got the itch again and started Ruud's AEX. I was the first to write a daily stock market commentary that a lot of people read. I also gave other writers a chance to share their stock market insights. This led to the creation of Beursplaza, which was a hit until the financial crisis hit in 2008. The years that followed were tough, and I saw the bottom of my coffers.
Meanwhile, software development had not stood still. In 2014, I launched Traderswinkel, a platform where customers could automatically execute signals for the first time. This platform was later renamed Systems2follow.
This year, my son Simeon took over the Systems2follow platform. I am now only active in the background, which gives me the time to trade again myself. I started a stock portfolio called S2F Global Value 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