Julius de Kempenaer is the co-founder of RRG Research, a research company which uses its proprietary charting technology to provide insights for investors using relative rotation graphs (RRG), which de Kempenaer created.
RRGs enable investors to distil the relative strength of hundreds or even thousands of securities into a single picture and enable comparison that would otherwise take weeks to reproduce and be impossible to visualize.
Prior to this, de Kempenaer served in the Dutch Air Force and later led Rabobank’s technical analysis, as well as working on the trading floor with Kempen and Co. His long and varied career that has given de Kempenaer some interesting insights into investing.
Listen to the interview:
Here, he tells Opto Sessions, among other things, why trusting yourself is important.
What is investors’ top mistake?
Impatience.
Where do you go for investment or economic insights?
I consume a lot of news, but only after the fact. I look a lot of charts on my own systems, so I don't have one particular source that I always go to.
“I consume a lot of news, but only after the fact. I look a lot of charts on my own systems, so I don't have one particular source that I always go to”
What is the most memorable moment from your career to date?
I'd say that it was a meeting with the head of graphics of Bloomberg in Frankfurt at the end of 2006. We agreed to put RRGs on the Bloomberg terminal.
What’s your top tip for your younger self?
Don't be afraid to think outside the box. In my military career, you were forced to stay in the box, basically — to follow the rules. In my financial career and my analyst career, I needed to learn to think out of the box. I would have loved to be able to do that a little bit earlier on or to not have been afraid to think outside the box.
“Don't be afraid to think outside the box”
What is an investor's best source of alpha, if you had to narrow it down to one thing?
I think trusting in yourself to use your own ability to judge and think… There are many people who want you to believe that their method is the holy grail in finance. That doesn't exist… So, use the information that is out there, but don't rely on it. Just keep thinking for yourself. You've got a brain, use it.
“So, use the information that is out there, but don't rely on it. Just keep thinking for yourself. You've got a brain, use it”
For more on de Kempenaer’s outlook on the markets and his strategy, listen to the full episode on Opto Sessions.
Or for more ways to listen:
Listen to the full interview and explore our past episodes on Opto Sessions.
Continue reading for FREE
- Includes free newsletter updates, unsubscribe anytime. Privacy policy
