Diversify

This is what I have learnt!

Forget about trying to pick winners. Now and again there may be the share market star performer that will suddenly have spectacular returns and occasionally hear of someone who has made a quick profit on a particular ticker, but if trying to pick winners becomes the focus of your investment strategy the chances are you will end up disappointed.

All investment markets will go through good and bad periods, so a far more logical approach is to understand your tolerance to risk and diversify across several asset classes and fund styles with the objective of gaining stronger long term results and limiting the impact of downturns. Diversification is a great way to manage investment risk and seek better returns because you are not exposed to the unpredictability of any one market or asset type.

I will need to remind myself to not put everything in one basket. That's the No. 1 trading rule.