Damien’s February 2025 portfolio review – More all-time highs

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 has extended its lead over its benchmarks since my last portfolio update in January.

During the last month my portfolio performed in line with its benchmarks, posting an impressive 3% return while setting a number of new all-time highs along the way.

My original £50,000 portfolio is now worth over £92,205 which equates to a profit of 84.41% in just under 10 years, which is a fantastic result. As I pointed out in January's portfolio review, it's not just the profit that is important, so is the management of investment risk in order to achieve that profit. If my portfolio was a fund residing in the Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector, of 262 funds (of which 143 have been in existence since my portfolio started) it would still rank in the top quartile for all of the key investing statistics, such as Alpha and Sharpe Ratio. Or in other words I achieved the above result by squeezing more return, from the investment risk that I took, than most professional fund managers were able to.

Focusing back on the short-term, the table below shows how individual funds performed within my portfolio since my last review in January.

Name	% return over the last month (since January review)
iShares Physical Gold	9.95
Artemis Global Income	5.35
Ninety One UK Special Situations	4.96
Man Japan Core Alpha	4.71
M&G Global Dividend	4.38
Aviva Inv Global Equity Income	4.11
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	2.85
Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index	2.63
Thesis TM Tellworth UK Select	2.19
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	2.08
Schroder Strategic Credit	1.17
abrdn High Yield Bond	0.89
Schroder Asian Discovery	-2.43

As you can see there were some incredible performances with gold rallying almost 10% during the month. This was thanks to a weaker pound versus the US dollar and due to increased investment market volatility, partly caused by Trump's trade tariffs. During times of global uncertainty gold tends to perform well due to its haven status. Other notable performers were my global equity income funds, such as Artemis Global Income, M&G Global Dividend and Aviva Inv Global Equity Income. These all performed well due to their reduced exposure to US tech stocks which experienced a sharp, albeit, brief sell-off following the DeepSeek announcement. The repricing of US tech stocks is the reason why T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity is not among the top performers this month. Another notable mention goes to Man Japan Core Alpha, which benefited from a weaker yen versus the US dollar. The fund was a new entrant in my portfolio last time, replacing Fidelity Index Japan, and while it is still early days it has proved a profitable move so far, as shown in the chart below.

At the other end of the scale Schroder Asian Discovery, which was also a new addition to my portfolio in January, disappointed and was the only fund to lose money over the last month.

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
abrdn High Yield Bond	14	Lower	Sterling High Yield	GB00B79RR984
Artemis Global Income	11	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B5N99561
Aviva Inv Global Equity Income	10	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB0030441918
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	8	Medium	Flexible Investment	GB00B4YPY060
iShares Physical Gold ETC	6	Medium	Commodity & Energy ETF	IE00B4ND3602
M&G Global Dividend	5	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B46J9127
Man Group Man Japan CoreAlpha	3	Higher	Japan	GB00B0119B50
Ninety One UK Special Situations	4	Higher	UK All Companies	GB00B1XFJS91
Schroder Asian Discovery	6	Medium	Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	GB00B5ZS9V71
Schroder Strategic Credit	8	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BJZ2ZC09
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	10	Higher	North America	GB00BD5FHW12
Thesis TM Tellworth UK Select	5.5	Lower	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BNY7YM73
Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index	9.5	Medium	Global	GB00B59G4Q73

Below is a list of the 'red' funds that have fallen out of both the BOTB and BFBS tables (the funds in bold were also in last month's red list):

• Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index
• Schroder Asian Discovery

This is the smallest number of funds to appear on the red list for some time, which perhaps isn't surprising given the portfolio's continued strong performance. So I am not going to make significant changes to my portfolio this month.

Last month I gave a stay of execution to Aviva Inv Global Equity Income, Barclays Global Markets Adventurous and Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index which all had fallen on to the red list. As it turns out Aviva Inv Global Equity Income and Barclays Global Markets Adventurous have both since returned to the BFBS tables, while Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index is not far behind. As the latter is still on the red list I looked at alternative options within the Global sector. The aim was to try and keep my asset allocation broadly the same but to see if there were other options with more momentum. The chart below shows the performance of the three funds from the Global sector in this month's BOTB over the last 3 months, alongside the performance of the Vanguard fund. As you can see the Vanguard fund has performed largely in line with the alternatives.

The chart below shows the performance of the same funds over the last month.

The momentum of the Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index has certainly picked up again. If you look at the chart above, the two major dips experienced by the other global funds coincided with the DeepSeek induced market sell-off and the market dip caused by Trump announcing trade tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. By contrast Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index fared much better than the other funds during both market events. As such I will maintain my holding in Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index due to the combination of performance but also its ability to diversify my portfolio and limit any future downside if we see a repeat of the US tech sell-off or another trade tariff tantrum.

As mentioned earlier, Schroder Asian Discovery has been a disappointment since it entered my portfolio a month ago. Having said that, the chart below shows the fund's performance since it entered my portfolio versus that of the fund it replaced, namely Liontrust India. As you can see the Liontrust India fund fell over 6% during the month, making the switch to Schroder Asian Discovery appear to be an inspired decision!

However, Schroder Asian Discovery was among the worst performing funds within the Asia Pacific excluding Japan sector overall. A clue as to why is shown in the chart above. Indian equities are the largest component of the Schroder Asian Discovery fund, making up almost 30% of its asset allocation. Indian equites have been in a slump that began during the autumn over concerns about corporate earnings and trade tariffs. It is why Indian equities have fallen out of the BOTB and BFBS tables as the strong momentum they had at the start of last year has gone into reverse.

As you will be aware I seldom make knee-jerk reactions when a fund falls out of the BOTB and BFBS tables, especially if it is a recent addition to my portfolio. However, Schroder Asian Discovery is struggling due to its overweight in Indian equities. As such, I will replace it with an alternative fund from the same sector that is in this month's BOTB, namely Invesco Asian (UK). The new fund only has around 7% exposure to Indian equities with Chinese equities making up approximately 30% of its asset mix. It is why Invesco Asian (UK) rose 3.38% over the course of last month.

The rest of the funds within my portfolio remain in the BFBS and BOTB tables so I will maintain them as they are. The fund switch (listed below) means that my asset mix remains broadly in line with that of the BOTB, however, the main difference is that I have a higher Japanese equity exposure while at the same time having a lower Chinese equity exposure. If I had switched my Japanese equity fund in favour of a pure Chinese equity fund then the asset mixes would have been almost identical. However the removal of any direct Japanese equity exposure is a new feature of the BOTB this month, plus Man Group Man Japan CoreAlpha was one of my portfolio's strongest performers over the last month, it remains in the BFBS table and was only introduced to my portfolio in January. So for now I have decided to leave this portion of my portfolio as it is and see how things pan out between now and my next review.

Fund switches

• 100% out Schroder Asian Discovery and 100% into Invesco Asian (UK)

My portfolio

My portfolio looks now like this:

Fund	Allocation	Risk	Sector	ISIN Code
abrdn High Yield Bond	14	Lower	Sterling High Yield	GB00B79RR984
Artemis Global Income	11	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B5N99561
Aviva Inv Global Equity Income	10	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB0030441918
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	8	Medium	Flexible Investment	GB00B4YPY060
Invesco Asian (UK)	6	High	Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	GB00B1W7HW60
iShares Physical Gold ETC	6	Medium	Commodity & Energy ETF	IE00B4ND3602
M&G Global Dividend	5	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB00B46J9127
Man Group Man Japan CoreAlpha	3	Higher	Japan	GB00B0119B50
Ninety One UK Special Situations	4	Higher	UK All Companies	GB00B1XFJS91
Schroder Strategic Credit	8	Lower	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BJZ2ZC09
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	10	Higher	North America	GB00BD5FHW12
Thesis TM Tellworth UK Select	5.5	Lower	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BNY7YM73
Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index	9.5	Medium	Global	GB00B59G4Q73

 

My Portfolio asset mix

My portfolio asset mix has approximately 65% exposure to equities. Last month's figures are shown in brackets.

• UK Equities 12% (12%)
• North American Equities 28% (27%)
• Asian Equities 5% (5%)
• Chinese Equities 2% (2%)
• Emerging Market Equities 0% (0%)
• Japanese Equities 5% (6%)
• European Equities 8% (8%)
• Other International equity 5% (5%)
• Commodities and energy 6% (6%)
• UK Fixed Interest 4% (4%)
• Global Fixed Interest 18% (18%)
• 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	19
Artemis Global Income	14
Aviva Inv Global Equity Income	13
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	10
iShares Physical Gold ETC	8
M&G Global Dividend	6
Schroder Strategic Credit	10
Thesis TM Tellworth UK Select	8
Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index	12

 

Higher risk

Fund	Allocation %
Artemis Global Income	15
Aviva Inv Global Equity Income	14
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	11
Invesco Asian (UK)	8
iShares Physical Gold ETC	8
M&G Global Dividend	7
Man Group Man Japan CoreAlpha	4
Ninety One UK Special Situations	6
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	14
Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index	13