Page 21 - DIY Investor Magazine Issue 24

HOLDING
Q1 2020 RETURN
-7.9% -10.9%
My three renewable/infrastructure funds have held up pretty well, though, as have the ‘quality’ end of my global funds (Fundsmith, Smithson, and Lindsell Train Global).
Those that said last year that markets were shifting
HICL Infrastructure
-4.0%
Fundsmith Equity
Lindsell Train Global
HG Capital
RIT Capital Partners JPMorgan Global G&I Princess Private Equity
Murray International BlackRock Smaller Companies
away from growth and back towards value seem to have -12.1% jumped the gun somewhat.
My private equity trio — HGCapital, Princess, and Baronsmead — have done OK but it will be a while until the new normal, gets worked into their net asset values.
My more conservative global funds — RIT, Caledonia, and Murray International — have been somewhat disappointing: RIT has been the best of the bunch, but had an alarming lurch downwards a couple of weeks back.
The Vanguard ETF I have did better than the Vanguard global tracker I measure against; this might be a timing difference, with its price being taken at 4:30 pm on 31st March and US markets falling a bit later that day.
The three UK smaller company funds I own have taken an absolute hammering; both Henderson and BlackRock leapt 45% in 2019 so those gains plus a little bit more have now been wiped out.
ISA TOP-UPS
I’m planning to put some more cash to work in the new ISA year; my plan is to split my contributions into two and possibly three tranches over a few weeks but I might just do everything at once to avoid obsessing over price movements.
The UK smaller funds and renewable/infrastructure trusts seem the most likely places I will invest; I’m building
my positions here and will probably take a scattergun approach over several holdings.
Bluefield Solar Income
-9.6%
Smithson
-10.9%
Gresham House Energy Storage
-13.6%
-14.6% -15.5% -22.2% -30.6% -34.6%
Vanguard All-World ETF
-15.4%
Baronsmead Venture Trust
-16.3%
Caledonia
-22.2%
Acorn Income
-33.5%
Henderson Smaller Companies
-36.4%
Given the make-up of my portfolio, I expect to track global market indices fairly closely while hopefully eking out a few extra percentage points a year; that still seems to be the case, but I’m yet to hit the three-year mark measuring my returns in this way.
I have a core of global trusts and funds but 25-30% of my portfolio is weighted towards the UK; I consider the Vanguard Life Strategy 100 fund the best benchmark to measure against (a global tracker with a 24% UK weighting).
I track my performance against standard global and UK trackers as additional frames of reference though, and use fund prices rather than actual indices to provide
a better comparison against the returns I could get elsewhere.
PERFORMANCE BY HOLDING
There’s a wide range: at the end of 2019, I was preening myself for having just one holding in the red, now I have a full set!
21 DIY Investor Magazine | Apr 2020