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Australians own more shares per capita then any other nation on the planet, with more than 54% of our population owning shares.

Until recently, most share investors bought shares and let them sit in the bottom drawer. With improvements in technology and an increased awareness and responsibility for financial planning, thousands of people are becoming share traders, buying and selling shares on a regular basis. And you can see why!

Over the past couple of years, certain company share prices have risen well over a 1000%, some over 5000%! So the temptation is extremely strong to start trading shares, rather then just sitting on them, especially when most of our blue chip companies have recently fallen in value.

Well, what goes up, must come down and most of those companies that skyrocketed over the past 18 months have not only run out of steam, but have come screaming back down, producing staggering losses for investors who have held on.

Now, I*m sure I*m not telling you something you don*t already know. However, it is amazing the number of people who still view the market as a free lunch, and do not practice safe trading strategies. They expect every share trade they do to provide excellent returns and then panic when their trades go against them.

Successful share traders all around the world have different trading strategies and systems, however they all agree on one basic principle, keep your losses small and let your profits run!

Throwing darts at a dart board as a share selection technique might sound a ridiculous way to choose share investments, but highlights the fact that choosing shares to buy is not as important as managing each trade once you*ve entered the market. Most traders enter trades based on rumours, tips and chat lines, which are really no better than using the dart board. However you choose to enter the market, be sure to adopt a strict STOP-LOSS strategy.

STOP-LOSS

A stop-loss is a predetermined point at which you will exit the trade, even if you are in a losing position. Many traders place a stop-loss 5% below the value of the shares when they purchase them. This means that they should not lose anymore than 5% (excluding slippage and volatile market movements) of the value of their share trade.

As the share price rises, ratchet up the stop-loss so that it is always 5% below the value of the shares. The 5% level is indicative only. You must determine your own level of risk for each share trade you make.

The best traders in the world know the power of a disciplined trading approach that incorporates stop-losses into every trade. For example, if you made 20 trades, and out of those 20 trades, 10 were losses, you can still make money. How can you make any money when 50% of your trades are losses? Well consider this. Let's say, as an example:

10 trades lose the maximum of 5%

3 trades make a profit of 5%
2 trades make a profit of 10%
2 trades make a profit of 15%
2 trades make a profit of 20%
1 trade makes a profit of 30%

Overall, our portfolio would rise 4.25%, as the higher returning shares cancel out the losses, leaving the balance as profit. This is the reality of trading. Accepting losses AND wins, but keeping the losses small, and letting the profits run.

The other aspect to successful share trading is excepting reasonable returns. As most share trades last between two weeks and two months, our 4-5% return is pretty good. It certainly beats bank interest rates, when considered over a yearly period. However, many novice traders try to make every trade the BIG score. In fact, one popular technique is to place all the available investment capital onto one or two different shares.

This is gambling. In this case, you*re much better off at the casino, as you won*t pay tax on any winnings. This is not a sensible or recommended trading approach. Successful traders spread their capital over 10-20 separate trades to minimise the risk and allow for losing trades.