ProBeleggen, the Dutch online platform where professional investors share their knowledge and expertise with retail investors (in return of a subscription fee) has been around since 2014. The company is an initiative from Jim Tehupuring en Albert Jellema, two seasoned investment pros, and was launched with the intention to close the gap between professional investing and the retail investor. In the first of a two-part article, SRP talks to Jordy Klijn (pictured) - the only professional at ProBeleggen who solely invests in structured products - about his investment philosophy, the companies audience, and why there is no harm in setting up a portfolio comprising just structured products.

Every professional at ProBeleggen invests with his own money, according to Klijn. "This means that when [the professional] buys a share and that share rises or falls, he sees his own money rising or falling in value," he said. "The professional himself experiences the 'pain' of the loss and the 'sweet' feeling of profit. That is actually the most important characteristic that distinguishes us from other providers, because there are many supporting service providers in the field, only we do it in a unique way."

When ProBeleggen first started, the minimum invested capital for its customers was set at €25,000. "We opted for that amount, on the one hand to be able to reach a large audience and, on the other hand, to prevent from ending up in an investor pool with people who have too little money to invest in an asset management type of way," said Klijn. "Buy and sell more, making short trips. That is not what the professionals on our platform do."

At ProBeleggen, investing is more looked upon as capital building in the long term, according to Klijn. "It is not a trading platform, it is more asset management, but then tailored. For this reason we opted to initially set the lower limit to €25,000, because then you deal with a serious audience and you can actually invest more in an asset management way. You can spend more time, you can spread better, and you make less costs.

"However, we started noticing that there were many people who found our service interesting but simply did not have the invested capital that we had assumed," said Klijn. Via research from partner BinckBank, the company did gain more insight in the situation, and now, since January this year, they have a portfolio from €15,000 to be able to serve the group that just fell outside the scope before. "The subscription is also a cheaper," said Klijn. "I actually focus on the smaller, perhaps younger investor, often people who have just started investing.

"We do not give advice, but we allow the retail investor to look into our portfolio," said Klijn. "The moment I indicate that I am buying a Rendement certificate (capped bonus certificate) on Ahold, for a particular reason, then it is up to the retail investor to decide whether or not to participate. But I always explain why I invest in a certain product and with what weight. So there is also a little bit of education involved."

ProBeleggen has 10 professionals on its platform and, according to Klijn, the company tries to offer "different flavours" to prevent it from being too much of the same. "Every professional has his own philosophy, his own way of investing, his own way of working and also has his own interpretation," said Klijn. "Albert [Jellema] for example has the philosophy of 'knowing a lot about little', based on fundamental analysis and especially Dutch equities. Jim [Tehupuring ] has a similar philosophy, but complements that with options. I'm also a bit in that corner and I fill it with structured products."

Structured products is still a niche market within investing in the Netherlands, according to Klijn. "It is still very small," he said. "We thought twofold. On the one hand structured products are a new flavour on our platform. On the other hand, we also see a lot of potential because a lot of retail investors, but also professional investors, do not have structured products on their radar, even though they have very interesting features that make it very interesting to include these products in their portfolio."

Within structured products you have different types, and each type has its own characteristics, according to Klijn. "My philosophy is that in principle there is no harm in setting up a portfolio with only structured products as long as you ensure that there is enough diversification/spread. Just as you spread in a traditional portfolio between cash, bonds, stocks and commodities.

"For me, fundamentally, what I do is to lead. I look at companies," said Klijn. "Then I look at an interpretation and I choose to do that with structured products but then I spread to what type of company I choose, what is the weighting, what is the moment I take up a position?"

If the volatility is high and if there is a lot of mobility in the market, then it is interesting to look at a Rendement certificate because then you can put your risk/return ratio to your advantage, according to Klijn. "In this way you try to anticipate, respond to market movements and spread accordingly," said Klijn.

"That is my steering wheel to deal with risk. Spread in time, spread by weighting, spread by type of product. That is the way I work," Klijn said.

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