Damien’s August 2025 portfolio review – Onwards & upwards

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 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 suggestions provided by the 80-20 Investor algorithm and associated research. I always disclose the changes at the time they are made.

Performance update

As is usual in my portfolio reviews, the chart below shows how my portfolio has outperformed since I started the challenge in March 2015. 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 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.

As you can see my portfolio continues to outperform its benchmarks and is extending its lead over both of them setting new all-time highs along the way.

Looking at the performance of my portfolio since my update in July, it enjoyed another incredible month (as shown in the chart below) and significantly outperformed its benchmarks. The divergence between my portfolio and both of the benchmarks (which largely followed one another) shows that my portfolio's outperformance during July was driven mostly by the funds I am invested in, rather than the asset mix.

The outperformance of my portfolio over its benchmarks is now the widest it's been since the portfolio's inception. I continue to be exceptionally pleased (and proud) of the portfolio's performance, both over the short-term and the long-term as it continues to go from strength to strength.

Back in May I highlighted how my portfolio would have been ranked 27th out of 142 funds in the Mixed Investment 40%-85% Shares sector assuming that it resided in it, putting it in the top quartile for performance. My portfolio has now risen to 26th, which is the highest position since I've been running my portfolio. That is an amazing result, given that most of the funds that are ranked higher have much larger equity components than my portfolio. It once again goes to prove that ordinary armchair investors can outperform professional fund managers.

It remains the case that UK investors have invested over £70 billion pounds with funds managers that have underperformed my portfolio over the last 10+years.

But as I always point out, it's not just the profit that is important, so is the management of investment risk in order to achieve that profit. My portfolio would also rank in the top quartile of the Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector for all of the key investing statistics, such as Alpha, Beta and Sharpe ratios. There are plenty of professional fund managers who would envy that record.

Turning my attention to the individual holdings within my portfolio, the table below shows the performance of each fund since July's portfolio review.

Once again, there have been some strong performances, especially from those funds with exposure to Asian equities. Man Japan Core Alpha was the top performer after Japanese equities surprised many during July . Meanwhile, only one fund lost money since my last review, namely Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select.

As an aside, last month I switched out of Aviva Inv Global Equity Income fund and split the proceeds between Ninety One UK Special Situations, WS Havelock Global Select and Artemis SmartGARP European Equity. Since my last review Aviva Inv Global Equity Income fell -0.41%, which is in stark contrast to the 2.85% return achieved on the sale proceeds following the fund switch. It's not often that a fund switch produces such a positive outcome in such a short space of time, but long may that continue.

Name	% return over the last month (since July review)
Man Japan Core Alpha	8.68
Jupiter China	6.21
Artemis Global Income	5.1
Invesco Asian (UK)	4.82
Ninety One UK Special Situations	4.27
iShares Physical Gold ETC	3.99
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	3.08
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	2.54
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	2.53
WS Havelock Global Select	2.37
M&G Global Dividend	1.72
Schroder Strategic Credit	1.19
abrdn High Yield Bond	1.14
Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select	-0.8

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 orange are not in the BOTB but remain 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	14	Lower	Sterling High Yield	GB00B79RR984
Artemis Global Income	13	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B5N99561
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	6	Medium	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B2PLJD73
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	8	Medium	Flexible Investment	GB00B4YPY060
Invesco Asian (UK)	5.5	Higher	Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	GB00B1W7HW60
iShares Physical Gold ETC	6.5	Medium	Commodity & Energy ETF	IE00B4ND3602
Jupiter China	3	Higher	China/Greater China	GB00B1DTDX49
M&G Global Dividend	5	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B46J9127
Man Group Man Japan CoreAlpha	2.5	Higher	Japan	GB00B0119B50
Ninety One UK Special Situations	10.5	Higher	UK All Companies	GB00B1XFJS91
Schroder Strategic Credit	8	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BJZ2ZC09
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	6	Higher	North America	GB00BD5FHW12
Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select	5.5	Lower	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BNY7YM73
WS Havelock Global Select	6.5	Higher	Global	GB00BFM7DN78

That means that 4 funds are on the red list this month, having fallen out of the BOTB and BFBS tables. They are:

• Barclays Global Markets Adventurous
• Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select
• M&G Global Dividend
• T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity

Regular 80-20 Investor members will know that I tend to only make changes to those funds that fall into the red list. Three of the four funds listed were on the red list last month, namely Barclays Global Markets Adventurous, Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select & M&G Global Dividend. And all of them, bar Barclays Global Markets Adventurous, were in the BFBS lists as recently as June.

Given the portfolio's strong performance I plan to make only one change this month. A case could be made for removing or keeping any of the four funds above but I plan to switch out of M&G Global Dividend. But before I get onto that, let me just run through the other three funds.

Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select is once again on the red list, despite recently making it into the Consistent funds shortlist. It has been an incredibly strong performer and diversifier within my portfolio since its first inclusion back in February 2022. The chart below shows the performance of the fund since it has been in my portfolio, versus the sector average performance for other lower-risk sectors. It demonstrates how the fund has been such a strong contributor to my portfolio's performance, despite being a 'boring' targeted absolute return fund.

Interestingly, the fund's performance only started to stall in June 2025, which also happens to coincide with when the fund was taken over by Premier Miton. However, the fund's investment mandate has not changed and neither has the team running it. It may well be that time is running out for Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select as a member of my portfolio, but I will keep it in my portfolio for now, given that it is a small holding within the low-risk portion of my portfolio.

Barclays Global Markets Adventurous has been on the red list for a couple of months yet each time I've given the fund a stay of execution it has rewarded me with a strong performance. It is why it remains in my portfolio at present. Last month I gave it another stay of execution and it rallied 2.53%. The chart below shows how the fund has performed versus its peer-group average from the same sector over the last 3 months. Having said that, Barclays Global Markets Adventurous remains on my watchlist but for now at least it continues to be a good diversifier.

Interestingly, if you compare its performance so far this year with that of the M&G Global Dividend fund they have largely tracked each other (see chart below). However, the Barclays Global Markets Adventurous has been less volatile. It is why I am favouring switching out of the M&G Global Dividend fund, rather than the Barclays Global Markets Adventurous for now.

I have recently reduced my exposure to T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity. In general, US equities have been among this year's laggards when compared to other global equity markets, with the falling US dollar vs the pound not helping. However, it has produced strong back to back performances in recent months, causing the fund to make a brief reappearance in the BFBS in July as US tech stocks rebounded.

Nonetheless, this month I will once again reduce my US equity exposure, but this time by selling out of the M&G Global Dividend fund. I will invest the proceeds into another fund from the same sector, but which has greater exposure to UK and European equities, namely Fidelity Global Dividend. I want to maintain my portfolio's risk profile and opted for a like-for-like switch within the same sector. As there are no other Global Equity Income funds in this month's BOTB I used the BFBS tables to select Fidelity Global Dividend.

Fund switch

100% out of M&G Global Dividend and then 100% into Fidelity Global Dividend

This switch means that I am reducing my US equity exposure but increasing my European and Japanese equity exposure. My portfolio's asset mix still differs from that of the BOTB, with a lower UK equity exposure and a higher US equity exposure but UK equities and European equities remain my top two holdings (as per the BOTB). But as long-term subscribers know, I am not too concerned if my asset mix deviates for a period of time, especially when my portfolio is performing so strongly.

My portfolio

My portfolio now looks like this:

Fund	Allocation	Risk	Sector	ISIN Code
abrdn High Yield Bond	14	Lower	Sterling High Yield	GB00B79RR984
Artemis Global Income	13	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B5N99561
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	6	Medium	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B2PLJD73
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	8	Medium	Flexible Investment	GB00B4YPY060
Fidelity Global Dividend	5	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B7778087
Invesco Asian (UK)	5.5	Higher	Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	GB00B1W7HW60
iShares Physical Gold ETC	6.5	Medium	Commodity & Energy ETF	IE00B4ND3602
Jupiter China	3	Higher	China/Greater China	GB00B1DTDX49
Man Group Man Japan CoreAlpha	2.5	Higher	Japan	GB00B0119B50
Ninety One UK Special Situations	10.5	Higher	UK All Companies	GB00B1XFJS91
Schroder Strategic Credit	8	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BJZ2ZC09
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	6	Higher	North America	GB00BD5FHW12
Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select	5.5	Lower	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BNY7YM73
WS Havelock Global Select	6.5	Higher	Global	GB00BFM7DN78

 

My Portfolio asset mix

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

• UK Equities 15% (15%)
• North American Equities 11% (14%)
• Asian Equities 4% (4%)
• Chinese Equities 4% (4%)
• Emerging Market Equities 4% (4%)
• Japanese Equities 6% (4%)
• European Equities 14% (11%)
• Other International equity 6% (8%)
• Commodities and energy 6% (6%)
• UK Fixed Interest 4% (4%)
• Global Fixed Interest 19% (19%)
• Cash 0% (0%)
• Alternative Investment Strategies 7% (7%)

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	21
Artemis Global Income	20
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	9
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	12
Fidelity Global Dividend	8
iShares Physical Gold ETC	10
Schroder Strategic Credit	12
Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select	8

 

Higher risk

Fund	Allocation %
Artemis Global Income	18
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	8
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	11
Fidelity Global Dividend	7
Invesco Asian (UK)	8
iShares Physical Gold ETC	9
Jupiter China	4
Man Group Man Japan CoreAlpha	4
Ninety One UK Special Situations	14
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	8
WS Havelock Global Select	9