Not every conversation in the hedge fund world needs to revolve around alpha, trend signals, or trading models. In HedgeNordic’s Quirky Questions series, we ask industry figures to momentarily step away from the screens and spreadsheets to share a more personal side of their story. In this edition, we hear from Harold de Boer, Managing Director and Head of R&D at Transtrend, a pioneer in systematic trend-following. Harold’s insights into markets are deeply rooted in his upbringing on a Dutch dairy farm, where lessons about standards, productivity, and discipline shaped his approach to managing a multi-billion-dollar trading strategy. But what happens when you swap the price charts for bike trails and market models for conversations with your granddaughter? We invited Harold to step away from the trading floor and join us in the Quirky Questions hot seat.

• How did growing up on a dairy farm shape how you think about trend-following and prepare you for managing a multi-billion-dollar trading strategy?

Until about half a century ago, Dutch milking cows were recognized as the best in the world. We exported them in large numbers to farmers all over the world. Naturally, these farmers wanted to ensure they were getting the famous “Friese Holsteiner” cow, not just any ordinary cow. For this reason, Dutch cattle breeders registered their livestock in the national herd-book — “Het Nederlandsche Rundvee Stamboek” — which certified the purity of the breed.

The herd-book listed numerous characteristics that the cows had to meet, including their height and color. It wasn’t just about “black and white,” but also how these colors were distributed over the body. For instance, the ears were supposed to be black. Cows registered in the herd-book were rated against these standards.

The good thing about these standards was that they were objectively measurable. The bad thing was that most of them weren’t linked to the real economic value of the cow. In fact, some of the prescribed characteristics were more of a weakness than a strength. My father was one of the first Dutch farmers to abandon these hallowed standards. When breeding his herd, he focused solely on the cow’s milk productivity and health. He faced criticism for this. His cows didn’t look like how cows were “supposed” to look. The steers from his herd weren’t considered proper breeding material.

Fast forward to today. The best cows in the world no longer meet most of the Friese Holsteiner herd-book standards, even though many are descendants of the Friese Holsteiners. How did this shape me? Let’s put it this way: I always felt sorry for auditors who came to tell me the precise standards a trend following program should meet.

• Do you still have a “cow milking” routine you follow every day, something that needs be down daily, no matter what?

Apart from consuming various farm products, I start my days with “looking at the markets” for a few hours. This involves observing what happened by watching hundreds of price charts and analyzing our trading activity in these markets. You could say it’s my daily attention to the cows that feed us.

• Is there a trend in your own life that you’ve stuck with the longest time, apart from markets?

As a child, I was asthmatic, which often kept me from playing and exercising with my friends. As a teenager, I decided I wouldn’t accept that anymore. By way of protest, I pushed myself to the limit with biking and running, even when my lungs were screaming like a kettle. This was a major concern for my mother. I stopped taking medication and ditched the inhalers. No more drugs for me! While my classmates started smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, I stayed sober. When my friends got mopeds, I got a racing bike and clocked many more kilometers with my whistling lungs after school. When I turned 18, I got my driver’s license but didn’t want a car. To me, being moved by a car felt like admitting I couldn’t do it myself.

Maybe not really a trend, but I still see cars above all as useful medical devices for people with mobility issues. And I’m grateful I have no such issues yet. The fastest way for my granddaughter to get to school is on her bike or inline skates, with grandad by her side. And when traveling, I still enjoy discovering places that cars can’t reach — the places where the most delicious blackberries grow. 

In this traveling and hiking, just as in trading, the art of chart reading has changed. I used to find my way using carefully folded military maps, a trusty compass, and the sun. Now, I am guided by an app on my smartphone. And somewhere along the way, I lost my kettle.

How is all this linked to my profession? By investing, we participate in what in Dutch is called “kapitaalverkeer” (“capital traffic”), which has dynamics quite similar to physical human traffic. Traffic jams are the frustration but at the same time the creation of people driving cars. I prefer to avoid them.

• Has your granddaughter taught you something that you find useful in markets, or human behavior, too?

We were looking for another place to live. A house was offered for sale in a nice and convenient area. When we had a look, I spotted some decorative features at the front of the house that were not depicted in the photos in the estate agent’s brochure. After some investigation, I learned that it concerned symbolism popular among the fascists around 1940. (These were also obsessed by the purity of the breed.) The house was built in 1941 on behalf of a Rotterdam entrepreneur who collaborated deeply with the nazi-German occupiers. The man made his fortune by selling houses that had “suddenly” become available for sale after the Jewish owners had left them. 

For me, this was an absolute no-go. I didn’t want to live in that history. But our granddaughter disagreed. She said, “Grandad, why do you only want to buy a house with a nice history? Can’t we write our own history?” I realized that she was completely right. The largest part of our personal history lies ahead of us. It’s up to us to make that happen. (But still, we didn’t buy that house.)