Damien’s April 2026 portfolio review – Rewarding resilience

The background to my portfolio

Back in March 2015 I decided to invest £50,000 of my own money using 80-20 Investor. The purpose was twofold, firstly to show how you can use 80-20 Investor to invest and outperform the market with only a few minutes of effort every now and then. Secondly, no other investment commentator, journalist or research provider invests their own money for fear of failing. This is a sorry state of affairs and is precisely why I committed to openly running my own portfolio for 80-20 Investor members to see.

Since then I have periodically changed my portfolio using the fund data provided by the 80-20 Investor algorithm and associated research. I always disclose the changes at the time they are made.

Performance update

The chart below shows how my portfolio has outperformed since I started the challenge in March 2015, over 11 years ago. The green line is the performance of my portfolio while the red line is the benchmark showing the average return achieved by professional fund managers given the same asset mix. To accurately calculate this I have used the average return for each sector in which my portfolio is invested. The blue line shows what the average multi-asset fund with comparable equity content achieved. In other words, the red line would show the extra performance added by just the asset mix of my portfolio (where I was invested i.e. European equities etc) over picking a typical multi-asset fund (the blue line), while the green line (which is my actual performance) shows the impact of being in the right funds at the right time, as identified by the 80-20 Investor algorithm.

When I published my March 2026 portfolio review the US and Israel had just launched their attack on Iran two days prior. At the time, I wrote that "the situation in the Middle East could have huge global repercussions both politically and economically... when a Black Swan event, such as we've seen, occurs, the market's reaction is usually violent and chaotic.... global equities and bonds have tumbled in tandem. Even gold has slumped in an environment where the only asset not losing value is cash".

In the end, cash remained the only haven during the entirety of March as bond and equity markets slumped. However, late on Tuesday 7th April, the US, Israel and Iran agreed on a two-week ceasefire, temporarily reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The market reaction was one of relief, causing stocks, bonds, and gold to soar. You can see the historic rebound on the far right of the chart below, which shows the performance of my portfolio since my last review, versus its benchmarks.

The rally across global stock markets built upon signs of optimism that had already begun to appear at the end of March. Yet, the rebound was still not enough to recover the highs achieved before the war. Nonetheless, the move higher is certainly positive from a technical analysis perspective.

The table below shows the performance of the individual funds within my portfolio since my last review, and covers the entirety of the Middle East conflict from start to ceasefire. Bear in mind that the numbers mask the volatility we saw during the month. For example, iShares Physical Gold was down as much as 12.84% at one point during March before recovering to be down 5.84%. Likewise, Man Japan Core Alpha was down 5.39% at one point during the month before recovering to finish up 2.34%, making it the best-performing fund in my portfolio since last month's portfolio review.

Despite the negative monthly performance of most funds within my portfolio, this should be put into context. For example, Premier Miton Multi-Asset Growth & Income may have finished down 1.05%, but this was during a month when bonds and equities fell in tandem. In addition, the fund outperformed 254 of its 295 peers within the Mixed Shares 40-85% Shares sector, firmly putting it in the top quartile for performance.

It may seem hard to believe, but if my portfolio resided in the Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector, its rank for performance since its inception would have risen to 12th out of 133 funds over the course of the last month. The point is that during market slumps, especially where every asset is falling, my portfolio will lose money, but those losses should be taken in a wider context.

Name	Performance since my last review (3rd March)
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	4.39
Man Japan Core Alpha	2.34
M&G Global Strategic Value	0.87
abrdn High Yield Bond	-0.28
Artemis Global Income	-0.4
Schroder Strategic Credit	-0.42
abrdn Strategic Bond	-0.43
Invesco Asian (UK)	-0.78
Fidelity Global Dividend	-0.83
Premier Miton Multi-Asset Growth & Income	-1.05
Ninety One UK Special Situations	-1.05
iShares Physical Gold ETC	-5.84

As usual, the table below shows which funds within my portfolio are in the current BOTB or BFBS tables and which are not. Those funds in blue are still in the BOTB while those in grey are not in the BOTB but are in the BFBS list. Meanwhile, any funds in red have dropped out of both shortlists.

Fund	Allocation	Risk	Sector	ISIN Code
abrdn High Yield Bond	12.5	Lower	Sterling High Yield	GB00B79RR984
abrdn Strategic Bond	4.5	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BWK27X12
Artemis Global Income	15	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B5N99561
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	7	Medium	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B2PLJD73
Fidelity Global Dividend	6	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B7778087
Invesco Asian (UK)	9	Higher	Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	GB00B1W7HW60
iShares Physical Gold ETC	8	Medium	Commodity & Energy ETF	IE00B4ND3602
M&G Global Strategic Value	4.5	Higher	Global	GB00B6173L33
Man Group Man Japan Core Alpha	7	Higher	Japan	GB00B0119B50
Ninety One UK Special Situations	11	Higher	UK All Companies	GB00B1XFJS91
Premier Miton Multi-Asset Growth & Income	8.5	Medium	Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares	GB00B78H4K93
Schroder Strategic Credit	7	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BJZ2ZC09

Despite the extreme volatility experienced during March, only three funds are on the red list this month, having fallen out of the BOTB and BFBS tables, namely:

• Schroder Strategic Credit
• Ninety One UK Special Situations
• Invesco Asian (UK)

Bear in mind that the 80-20 Investor algorithm takes into account momentum beyond the very near-term, so reducing the level of recency bias that can occur during violent short-term market moves. This explains why so many of the funds in my portfolio remain in the BOTB and BFBS tables.

All three funds on this month's red list were also on the red list last month, while Ninety One UK Special Situations and Schroder Strategic Credit were on the red list back in February, too. So, despite the volatility we are experiencing in the market, although it has settled at least temporarily following the announcement of the ceasefire in the Middle East, now is the time to make some changes to my portfolio.

As always, I will stick to my investment process that has fared so well over the last 11 years across numerous market cycles and periods, characterised by greater levels of volatility and deeper market slumps than we experienced in March. Looking at the three 'red' funds, I will now replace Ninety One UK Special Situations as its momentum has faded in recent months, even before the war started. The chart below shows the performance since the start of the year of Ninety One UK Special Situations versus iShares 100 UK Equity Index (UK), a fund from the same sector (UK All Companies) that is in the current BOTB list.

 

As you can see iShares 100 UK Equity Index (UK) outperformed over the period, especially during March, which was principally due to the exposure of the FTSE 100 (which it tracks) to oil and energy companies (such as BP) that rallied during the Middle East crisis. The temporary ceasefire has allowed Ninety One UK Special Situations to attempt to play catch-up. As I plan to maintain my portfolio's UK equity exposure, which is already in line with that of the BOTB, I will carry out a like-for-like swap. Should the ceasefire break down, then the new fund will hopefully provide greater downside protection, mitigating some of the geopolitical risks at the moment.

Invesco Asian (UK) has also struggled in recent months, periodically making it back on the BFBS list for brief periods of time. I don't want to dramatically change my portfolio asset mix at present, as it's not too different from that of the BOTB. That being said, I don't religiously alter my portfolio's asset mix every time there is a slight change in the asset mix of the BOTB. The most notable difference between the asset mix of the BOTB and that of my portfolio is that the former now has a larger US equity allocation and lower Japanese and European equity exposure. The BOTB also has a marginally lower Asian equity exposure.

Given that the European and Japanese equity funds are among the best performers in my portfolio since my last review (as shown in the table at the start of the article), I am loath to alter them, especially as Artemis SmartGARP European Equity is also in the BFBS table and Man Group Man Japan Core Alpha is still in the BOTB selection. So I will make a like-for-like swap, within the Asian equity sector, by switching out of Invesco Asian (UK) and into BNY Mellon Asian Income from this month's BOTB.

The chart below shows the performance of both funds since the start of the year, and much like the previous example, the new fund has outperformed my current holding in the lead-up to and during the Middle East crisis.

However, I plan to invest 20% of the proceeds from the Invesco Asian (UK) switch into the M&G Global Strategic Value. In doing so, it will slightly reduce my Asian equity exposure while ever so slightly increasing my exposure to US equities. M&G Global Strategic Value remains in the BFBS table, but it also had the lowest drawdown of any equity fund within my portfolio during the Middle East war. Finally, I plan to leave the Schroder Strategic Credit in my portfolio for now, as it has largely performed in line with my other bond holdings, and I want to keep changes to a minimum at the moment.

Overall, the fund switches remove equity funds that were already showing signs of fading momentum before the war, in favour of existing funds or like-for-like alternatives that have shown better momentum and greater resilience before and during the recent market slump.

Fund switches

I am making the following fund switches:

• 100% out of Ninety One UK Special Situations and 100% into iShares 100 UK Equity Index (UK)
• 100% out of Invesco Asian (UK) and 80% into BNY Mellon Asian Income and 20% into M&G Global Strategic Value

My new portfolio now look like this:

Fund	Allocation	Risk	Sector	ISIN Code
abrdn High Yield Bond	12.5	Lower	Sterling High Yield	GB00B79RR984
abrdn Strategic Bond	4.5	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BWK27X12
Artemis Global Income	15	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B5N99561
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	7	Medium	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B2PLJD73
BNY Mellon Asian Income	7	Higher	Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	GB00B8KT3V48
Fidelity Global Dividend	6	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B7778087
iShares 100 UK Equity Index (UK)	11	Medium	UK All Companies	GB00B7W4GQ69
iShares Physical Gold ETC	8	Medium	Commodity & Energy ETF	IE00B4ND3602
M&G Global Strategic Value	6.5	Higher	Global	GB00B6173L33
Man Group Man Japan Core Alpha	7	Higher	Japan	GB00B0119B50
Premier Miton Multi-Asset Growth & Income	8.5	Medium	Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares	GB00B78H4K93
Schroder Strategic Credit	7	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BJZ2ZC09

 

My Portfolio asset mix

My portfolio asset mix still has approximately 64% exposure to equities. Last month's figures are shown in brackets.

• UK Equities 14% (14%)
• North American Equities 9% (8%)
• Asian Equities 7% (10%)
• Emerging Market Equities 5% (5%)
• Japanese Equities 9% (9%)
• European Equities 13% (12%)
• Other International Equities 7% (6%)
• Commodities and energy 8% (8%)
• UK Fixed Interest 5% (5%)
• Global Fixed Interest 18% (19%)
• Cash 0% (0%)
• Alternative Investment Strategies 5% (4%)

Damien's higher risk and lower risk portfolios

Using the logic described in my post: Update to Damien’s alternative risk portfolios I created hypothetical higher and lower risk versions of my portfolio below:

Lower risk

Fund	Allocation %
abrdn High Yield Bond	15
abrdn Strategic Bond	6
Artemis Global Income	18
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	9
Fidelity Global Dividend	8
iShares 100 UK Equity Index (UK)	14
iShares Physical Gold ETC	10
Premier Miton Multi-Asset Growth & Income	11
Schroder Strategic Credit	9

 

Higher risk

Fund	Allocation %
Artemis Global Income	20
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	9
BNY Mellon Asian Income	9
Fidelity Global Dividend	8
iShares 100 UK Equity Index (UK)	14
iShares Physical Gold ETC	11
M&G Global Strategic Value	9
Man Group Man Japan Core Alpha	9
Premier Miton Multi-Asset Growth & Income	11