Boast / weep about your recent investment decisions HERE

tim_n

Downside: Dumped £30k into an ISA fund for myself and the wife in April not thinking about that brexit thing and the economy because it was April and time to take a dividend. It's not down massively, but I should have waited a bit I think...

Upside: Bought about £30 of Bitcoin a few weeks ago and now it's worth about £70

george4064

Been a pretty up and down 2016 so far.

In short term, end of January's/February's falls hit me hardest, followed by Brexit (so far), and least affected by the China panic situation back in August last year.

My portfolio peaked in December after rising 23% in 2015 and 9% in 2014.

31/12/2015 1.34627
29/01/2016 1.28827 -4.31%
29/02/2016 1.24560 -3.31%
31/03/2016 1.27393 +2.27%
29/04/2016 1.26123 -1.00%
31/05/2016 1.29211 +2.45%
30/06/2016 1.23626 -4.32%

June 2015 - June 2016 +1.03%
June 2014 - June 2015 +18.90%

TheTracker

george4064 wrote: »

Been a pretty up and down 2016 so far.

I recall you posting your results at the end of the year which were as good as anyone else's. Kudos to you for going public with a 6 month drop. Respect. So few people post their returns here in good times and bad.

It's certainly been a volatile period. For the two years ending June 2015 my portfolio changed 0.61% on average per month. For the last twelve months, its been a 1.8% swing on average each month.

Investing is about how much churn/volatility/loss you can take in short periods, and then to tune your asset allocation to best fit that appetite.

I have a very boring 60/40 portfolio of trackers and haven't changed my allocation for years, compared to your exciting 100/0 basket of selected stocks/funds. If I compare our experiences:

6m to Jun 2016: You -9.1% Me +8.6% VLS60 +7.6%
12m to Jun 2016: You +1.0% Me +9.2% VLS60 +8.9%
12m to Jun 2015: You +18.9% Me +7.5% VLS60 +7.0%

So for the 2 years to date thats 9.6%pa for you (assuming your costs are included in your figures) vs 8.3%pa for me (after costs) vs 8.0% for VLS60 (before costs) as a benchmark, but with my personal appetite I'd rather the lower return without the much higher swings. We all have different circumstances and needs, and if it is working for you then stick with it. But personally in my situation I couldn't stomach 6 figure portfolio value changes per year that your returns would have resulted in for me. Well, actually I could in a 2008 style crash, but not during the type of market we've had the last couple of years.

Glen_Clark

Having nothing better to do this rainy week I have been clearing out old papers, and put my old share purchases and sales into my spreadsheet. Amazed myself in that I had made an overall capital gain on my direct shareholdings. Being a bit of a pessimist I tend to only remember the capital losses.

brianh

Listened to someone I didn't know and bought £1000 of Burnden Leisure (Bolton Wanderers effectively) on the basis that shares would fly when they got into the Premiership. They got there but shares continued to slide and became worthless.

This year panicked and sold my Resources fund which was massively down and press comments were pessimistic. While nowhere near to my purchase price, they have come way off my selling low.

One good decision this year was to have a £200 bet on Brexit (at 7) as a small insurance to a FTSE decline!

TheTracker

TheTracker wrote: »

First fund change for at least a couple of years - Asset allocation has 10% value tilt, sold all Vanguard UK Equity Income and High Yield Div VHYL as poor proxies. Bought vanguard global value factor etf.

It's worked well so far. VVAL has risen 37% since buying in June, VHYL "only" 19%.

george4064

TheTracker wrote: »

I recall you posting your results at the end of the year which were as good as anyone else's. Kudos to you for going public with a 6 month drop. Respect. So few people post their returns here in good times and bad.

It's certainly been a volatile period. For the two years ending June 2015 my portfolio changed 0.61% on average per month. For the last twelve months, its been a 1.8% swing on average each month.

Investing is about how much churn/volatility/loss you can take in short periods, and then to tune your asset allocation to best fit that appetite.

I have a very boring 60/40 portfolio of trackers and haven't changed my allocation for years, compared to your exciting 100/0 basket of selected stocks/funds. If I compare our experiences:

6m to Jun 2016: You -9.1% Me +8.6% VLS60 +7.6%
12m to Jun 2016: You +1.0% Me +9.2% VLS60 +8.9%
12m to Jun 2015: You +18.9% Me +7.5% VLS60 +7.0%

So for the 2 years to date thats 9.6%pa for you (assuming your costs are included in your figures) vs 8.3%pa for me (after costs) vs 8.0% for VLS60 (before costs) as a benchmark, but with my personal appetite I'd rather the lower return without the much higher swings. We all have different circumstances and needs, and if it is working for you then stick with it. But personally in my situation I couldn't stomach 6 figure portfolio value changes per year that your returns would have resulted in for me. Well, actually I could in a 2008 style crash, but not during the type of market we've had the last couple of years.

Very interesting post.

I think I need to check my 2016 performance calculation again, it does seem a bit odd that my portfolio has grown by £4,000 in total over the time period, and £2,000 of that was new money therefore suggesting the other £2,000 came from performance/dividends. And then my calculations say return was +0.04% over the same period doesnt sound right...

It didnt help that my portfolio peaked right on 31st December 2015, which is when I calculate the monthly portfolio unit price.

racey

Invested £3000 in ETFS Physical Gold before the recent USA elections having read that gold was a good investment in uncertain times.
It's now worth £2583 Not a good decision.

Thrugelmir

george4064 wrote: »

I think I need to check my 2016 performance calculation again, it does seem a bit odd that my portfolio has grown by £4,000 in total over the time period, and £2,000 of that was new money therefore suggesting the other £2,000 came from performance/dividends. And then my calculations say return was +0.04% over the same period doesnt sound right...

There's a considerable amount of poor corporate performance at the moment. Noticeable if you follow individual shares closely.

I'm currently 90% in listed funds at the moment. With the 10% in a single share that I've held and followed for a number of years. Primarily for it's income. It's market cap is very small. Therefore off the radar for fund managers generally.

bowlhead99

Thrugelmir wrote: »

With the 10% in a single share that I've held and followed for a number of years. Primarily for it's income. It's market cap is very small. Therefore off the radar for fund managers generally.

You can't keep us on tenterhooks like that Thrug: your public demand to know the name of this well- researched income stock so that we can take a shortcut to the same investment appraisal as you without actually bothering to do the same detailed tracking and review, and then blame you when it goes wrong