In-depth research has enabled a 30-something Perth couple, Shaun and Sonya Lloyd, to turn $3,000 into $12,000 in 7 months of share trading. Apart from research there was also significant sacrifice. Sha un had worked 70 hours a week as a boilermaker and Sonya 7 days a week as a hairdresser to save $40,000.

After relocating from Darwin to Perth, they read Robert Kiyosaki’s self-help bestseller Rich Dad, Poor Dad, from which they concluded they needed to embark on more extensive financial education.

Kiyosaki’s motivational handbook, published in the US in 2000, is subtitled “What the rich teach their kids about money that the poor and middle class do not” and it inspired the Lloyds to become more financially adventurous.

“Saving does not work,” Shaun Lloyd says. “We watched all that hard work disappearing and we weren’t getting the rewards for all our hard work."

After learning about risk management at a share-trading seminar they attended in February last year, the Lloyds proceeded to thoroughly research their every move. After studying real-life examples of individual trading results they increasingly understood that losses on the sharemarket were inevitable.

“Risk management is essential to minimize the size of your losses,” Shaun said. “Initially, our risk profile was 3 per cent of our trading float, and this figure will continuously reduce to a target of 1.6 per cent, as our float grows.

“We never break the rules when it comes to risk management. Anyone that tried to outsmart the market will face big problems.”

Shaun Lloyd regularly calls up a range of information on the web to learn about the wider economy as it relates to his trading activities.

“When I was new to this I realized there’s a hell of a lot to learn,” he says.

He now regularly visits the ASX site, mainly for company news, which he dissects as a matter of course whenever there has been a trading halt or sudden change in price “to see what happened”.

Also on his radar are stockbrokers’ reports, and he subscribes to investors’ newsletters – but he sees these as of variable reliability compared with the more scientific technical analysis.

“I’m from a scientific background, and I appreciate the power of statistics,” he says. “Scientific analysis is what counts – one must take the emotion out of everything to do with share trading.”

As the Lloyds’ sharemarket returns grow, so do their aspirations, with Shaun intending to complete his degree to become a chiropractor and Sonya embarking on a full-time fine arts degree. Meanwhile, the funds generated are allowing them to do such things as shark fishing, mountain-bike riding and four-wheel driving.

All testimonials are provided voluntarily, without payment, inducement or other benefits.

*Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.