To be a successful trader in the share market, you have to choose profitable stocks.
For grabbing good shares, you need to build a portfolio first.
This article will tell you all about portfolios and why they are important for stock trading.
An investment portfolio is basically a collection of stocks you are holding.
It should contain minimum 2 stocks.
Rules of A Portfolio Before selecting stocks to include in your portfolio, you have to take into account these fundamental principles that it will adhere to:

1. Quality - Choose solid shares that will withstand the market's shifting trends and give you financial security.
   
2. Variety - According to experts, 10-12 stocks are the basic ingredient for an impressive portfolio.
   You should have a substantial amount of shares of companies in various industries.
   The number of shares you have should also be different from one industry to another.
   For instance, if you hold 10 stocks of company A in industry A, you should hold at least 15 stocks of company B in industry B.
   However, it is not required for you to go beyond your capital limit to buy them.
   
3. Strategy - You must have a plan of action to understand the current trends in the market, when to buy shares and when to sell them.
   You can use tools to analyze the market trends to get into further detail about your investment strategy.
   Or you can also go by the simple rule of trading along with the market trends.
   Choice is yours, but keep in mind that your portfolio needs to be steady and flexible at the same time.
   

How You Should Build It You need to have the goal of long term investment when making it.
Though the prospect of your money getting doubled or tripled every year is tempting, you should not be driven by that only.
Set true-to-life objectives for yourself.
Remember that you are creating a portfolio for the future.
How to Personalise It There are 3 main aspects to consider for it namely time, challenge and benefit.
Let us delve deeper into these aspects.

• Time: You have to determine the time period for which you intend to hold the portfolio.
  It has a major part to play in determining the kind of stocks you should choose.
  Also, consider your age as well because the ideal ones for a young person are completely different from the ones a relatively older person should select.
  
• Risk: Your risk quotient should be closely aligned with the time factor.
  Surprisingly, your behavior is a good determinant of how much risk you are willing to take.
  Take into consideration your risk-taking capabilities before you include high-risk shares.
  
• Benefit: Though most people want sky-scraping benefits, but you should start with a benefit that would defy inflation by some percent every year.
  

Now comes the part where you have to purchase stocks to add to the portfolio.
2 types of them are there in the Australian share market, namely income and growth.
The income ones are dependent on dividends whereas the growth ones are the early appreciation of a hike in the share prices.
As to how much profit these two types can bring you, your broker will be able to tell you.