It takes a special kind of person to fully understand the intricacies of stock market trading, and an even bigger one who sees the value in helping others successfully invest their hard-earned cash. Hardus van Pletsen, the CEO of QuickTrade, is one such trend setter who has made it his life’s work to help his clients trade currencies (forex), commodities and indices for profits.
Becoming a self-made tycoon
From an early age, Hardus realised that with the right mindset, literally anyone could make a profit from trading shares on the stock market. He made his first investments in shares in 1985 when he was just 16 years old, a time when the JSE was booming and, according to him, it was easy to make money with no trading knowledge or tools.
“This was until the JSE crashed in October 1987, which is when I realised that I needed to learn more about investing and trading to make money consistently. From doing so, by 1994 I was making more money as a 24-year-old than most professionals,” said Hardus.
“After a while I became tired of people asking me to explain what I was doing, so I got the idea to start charging for what I knew. I dedicated a few months to converting my trading knowledge into lecture material, and then registered a business called Stock Market College. We quickly started enrolling hundreds of people on the course every month,” continued Hardus.
Launching QuickTrade as a trading platform
In 2008, Hardus identified a need to further assist his clients by facilitating trading accounts with brokers to help them recover their course fees from trading profits.
“We started referring clients to various brokers, but almost immediately started experiencing problems. The integrity, service and systems offered by these brokers were poor, and their lack of effort tarnished our good name,” said Hardus.
This led to Hardus establishing QuickTrade as a solution to help his clients invest in the stock market. “QuickTrade was licensed with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in 2014. We chose the name QuickTrade because we aspire to deliver quick and efficient service to our clients,” said Hardus.
“Our aim has always been to service the larger community as a premium retail broker by enabling traders to trade CFDs of stocks, commodities, currencies and indices on our trading platform,” continued Hardus.
Partnering with Payfast for quick and easy online transactions
One of the most important requirements of QuickTrade was to allow their traders to deposit and withdraw money from their trading accounts quickly and easily. After some market research, in 2018 Hardus and his team identified Payfast as the perfect solution for their needs. Payfast ticked all their boxes in that it was recognised as the most trusted payments platform in South Africa, and it supported a variety of popular payment methods to suit their clients’ preferences.
“We needed to provide our traders with a fast and efficient payment gateway, which Payfast was and obviously still is. As we have grown in our business, so we have grown with Payfast. As our needs grew, so did their offering. Our traders love and trust the integration we have with Payfast and our Client Portal,” said Hardus.
Under Hardus’ leadership, QuickTrade has seen immense, continuous growth, with over 90,000 traders using their digital platform. “Looking back, I’m proud at what I’ve been able to accomplish with support from my team, and I’m genuinely excited at what still lies ahead. I honestly find stock market trading exhilarating and I encourage others to give it a try,” concluded Hardus.
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