1%
of retail traders are profitable net of fees
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You're not blowing up your trading account, just bleeding out slowly.
Most Australian retail investors never lose their money in one dramatic crash. They lose it a few percent at a time, holding stocks they should have sold months ago. Here's the discipline that stops it — from a team that manages money on the ASX and shows its losses.
By David Tildesley — Principal & Portfolio Manager, Equity Story Pty Ltd (part of ASX-listed Aland Equity Group, ASX:AEG)
Let me tell you about a trade I hear described, in one version or another, almost every week.
An investor — let's call him every second person I've ever spoken to — buys a stock at $7.80. It runs. Within a couple of months he's up twelve per cent, and he promises himself he'll take profits at $9.
It touches $8.95. Then it slips. He holds, because it was just there. It slides under his buy price. He holds, because now selling would mean admitting the mistake. Eighteen months later it's on his portfolio screen at $4.60, quietly filed under "long-term hold."
He didn't pick a bad stock. He had no plan for getting out of it...
And here's the uncomfortable part: if you added up every position like that in your own history — the ones you rode down, the winners you gave back — you know the total would be uncomfortable. That's exactly why you've never added it up.
"Every tip you've ever followed told you what to buy. Almost none of them ever mentioned when to sell."
The numbers nobody shows you before you start trading
60%
quit trading inside their first month
80%
are gone within two years of starting
7%
are still trading at the five-year mark
Not because they necessarily picked bad stocks. Because they had no plan for getting out of the ones that went against them.
Sources: Barber & Odean, "Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth" and related academic studies of retail trading outcomes; ASIC retail-investor research. Statistics relate to studied trading populations, not Equity Story members.
It's not a stock-picking problem. It's an exit problem.
After decades in this market — and thousands of conversations with Australian retail investors — I can tell you the pattern behind those numbers, and it isn't what most people think.
It's almost never one catastrophic trade. It's the slow bleed: small losses left to become big ones, winners sold years too early or held years too long, decisions made at 11pm on a forum instead of at the moment of purchase.
Professionals cut losers and ride winners. Amateurs do the opposite. That's the game.
When you buy without a written exit, every day you hold becomes a fresh emotional decision. You end up trading on emotion instead of process. And emotion is expensive.
The rule that changes it: decide your exit before you enter
Every recommendation our analyst team publishes carries three numbers, set before anyone buys a single share: a buy-under price, an analyst-set stop-loss, and a profit target — with the reasoning spelled out in plain English.
That's it. That's the discipline. It sounds almost too simple, until you realise it's precisely the thing missing from every tip sheet, forum thread and barbecue conversation that got you into your current positions.
Why we aim for "uninspiring" five per cent trades
We're not chasing ten-baggers. We aim to bank disciplined single-digit wins and cut the losers early. Here's the arithmetic most investors never do:
6 trades×~5% each=+34%compounded
Six modest wins, compounded across a year, outrun the person swinging for one big score — because they keep their capital intact while doing it. Bank the fives, cut the twos, and let the maths do the rest.
Illustrative arithmetic of compounding, not a promise or forecast of returns. Individual results depend on your decisions, timing and market conditions.
We call the other half of the discipline the Shark Chart: you never want to own a stock trading below its 20- and 40-day moving averages — in the shark's mouth.
It's a mental model our members use to stop "hoping" a chart will turn around.
Because that's the real shift. You're not hoping — you're following a system.
Who's telling you this — and why you can check
Fair question. The internet is full of anonymous gurus selling PDF courses from a beach somewhere. So let me be specific about who we are:
Equity Story Pty Ltd holds Australian Financial Services Licence 343937 and is part of Aland Equity Group Limited, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:AEG). The same analyst team behind our member recommendations manages the Aland Australian Equities Fund — real money, publicly reported, wins and losses alike.
+56.16%
AAEF cumulative return, Jan 2023 – Jan 2026
+26.91%
benchmark return over the same period
-10.37%
maximum drawdown across that period
0.70
beta — less volatile than the market it beat
15.16%
annualised, vs 8.03% for the All Ordinaries
63.9%
win rate — yes, we're wrong over a third of the time
Notice that win rate. We publish it because a team that's wrong 36% of the time still compounds ahead of the market — because the losers are cut small and the winners are allowed to run. Exits, not entries. That's the whole game.
Fund performance relates to the Aland Australian Equities Fund (ARSN 695 130 922) for the period 1 January 2023 to 31 January 2026, after investment-level fees. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. The fund is a separate product to the Investor Plus membership; membership does not invest your money. Consider the PDS and TMD (available on request) before making any decision about the fund. Rated "Satisfactory" by Evergreen Ratings — a rating is only one factor to consider; see evergreenratings.com.au for methodology.
What this looks like day to day
In September 2024 we surveyed our members.
Eighty-two per cent said the one thing they could not do without was the Daily Video, a 15-minute analyst video every trading morning covering exactly what we're watching, what we'd buy under what price, where the stop sits, and why.
Twice a week, members join Ask The Analyst live on Zoom and put their own trades in front of
our team — Peter Kopetz and I. The members who show up to those calls are, year after year, the ones who renew.
Not because we're charming. Because their trading changes.
"Sixteen months on the system and I finally trade part-time around my job without second-guessing every position."
— Colin, member (part-time trader, 47)
"I started with zero experience. Following the process — especially knowing my exits before I buy — changed everything about how I invest."
— Lyndell, member
Individual member experiences. We're not promising you'll get the same results — but the system they followed doesn't change from member to member.
Investor Plus: the exit-first membership
One flat annual price. No upsell maze, no "call for pricing," no strike-through games. Here's the full inventory:
✓
Daily Market Edge
15-minute analyst video every trading morning — buy-under price, analyst-set stop, target, and the reasoning in plain English.
$1,500/yr value
✓
Ask The Analyst — live, twice weekly
Tuesday 7pm & Friday 12pm AEST on Zoom with Peter Kopetz and David Tildesley. Bring your actual portfolio.
$2,400/yr value
✓
Hot Stocks Weekly Pick
Sunday night: the team's single highest-conviction idea for the week ahead, with full exit plan attached.
$500/yr value
✓
CTM Foundations
The exit-first rule set — including the Shark Chart — taught in your first week, so every recommendation makes sense from day one.
$800/yr value
Total stated component value: $5,200 per year
$247
for a full year of membership — about 67 cents a day, billed once
30-DAY
The 30-day confidence guarantee
Join today. Use it properly for 30 days — watch a week of Daily Market Edge, sit in on one Ask The Analyst call, read the foundations. If you decide it's not for you, email us within 30 days for a full refund. No retention call, no questions, no hard feelings. This guarantees your satisfaction with the membership — no one can guarantee trading outcomes, and you should run from anyone who does.
One more way to think about it: if the only thing this membership ever does is help you exit one losing position two days earlier, it has covered itself many times over.
WHAT MEMBERS SAY
Twelve months in. In their words.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Questions members ask before joining
I've tried trading recommendation services before and got burned. Why is this different?
Most services tell you what to trade without knowing how to trade it. The reality is the best tips are useless to you if you do not trade them well. Most of them give you entries with no exits — the buy is the whole product. We're the opposite. Every recommendation arrives with a buy-under price, an analyst-set stop, and a target. You know the exit before you take the entry. And the team running these recommendations is the same team running our independently-rated Growth Fund — they have to be right on their own money before you ever see the call. The real power here is having a team to talk with that will help you BEFORE you trade, review your trade with you, and be on the journey with you!
Why is it so cheap? Are you going to upsell me constantly?
Your $247 covers twelve months of everything described on this page. Daily Market Videos, twice-weekly Ask The Analyst, Hot Stocks Weekly, and the CTM foundations. No upsells are required to make the membership work. We do offer the full Cincinnati Trading Method training and the Aland Australian Equities Fund as separate products for members who want to go further — but they're invitations, not prerequisites.
What if I follow your recommendations and they don't work for me?
Use the 30-day confidence guarantee. If after attending an Ask The Analyst session, listening to a week of Daily Market Edge, and applying the CTM foundations you don't feel meaningfully more confident in your own decision-making — email us, get a full $247 refund, no retention call.
What if the market crashes or I hit a losing streak?
The Cincinnati Trading Method foundations exist exactly for these conditions. Pre-set analyst stops cap downside on every position. The Daily Market Video will explicitly recommend cash or no-trade days, when the team sees the market environment shift. Losing streaks happen — the question is whether your rules contain them or compound them.
I don't have time to watch videos or learn complicated systems.
Daily Market Edge is 15 to 20 minutes. Listen during your commute or before bed. We tell you the buy-under price, the stop level, and the target. Two minutes with your broker to execute. No 40-page reports, no homework. The system is designed for people with real jobs.
I'm a beginner — will I understand this?
Yes. The Cincinnati Trading Method foundations are taught in your first week — no prior trading experience required. The Ask The Analyst sessions are explicitly designed for members to bring questions of any level. Several of our longest-tenured members joined with no trading background at all.
Twelve months of analyst-led ASX recommendations for just $247.
Guaranteed for 30 days.
One charge. 30-day no-questions full refund.
Instant access· 30-day refund
EQUITY STORY · INVESTOR PLUS
Aland Equity Group (ASX: AEG)
RE: Equity Story Ltd · AFSL 343937
[email protected]
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS:
General Advice Warning. The information provided by Equity Story is general in nature and does not take into account your personal financial situation, objectives, or needs. It is not personal financial advice. Before making any investment decision, you should consider whether the information is appropriate for your circumstances and, if necessary, seek professional financial advice.
Earnings Disclaimer: Results mentioned in testimonials and case studies are not typical and represent individual experiences. Your results may vary based on your capital, risk tolerance, discipline, market conditions, and other factors beyond our control. We make no income claims or guarantees.
Testimonial Disclaimer: Testimonials appearing on this page are from real members of Equity Story. However, these results are not typical, and individual experiences will vary. We do not claim that you will achieve similar results.
Refund Policy: Our 30-day money-back guarantee requires engagement with the membership content (consuming daily podcasts, attending at least one Ask The Analyst session, reviewing weekend materials). Refund requests made within 30 days that meet these engagement criteria will be processed in full.
Company Information: Equity Story is an ASX-listed company operating under Australian financial regulations. For full regulatory information and disclosures, please contact [email protected].
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