Damien’s July 2025 portfolio review – Back to setting new 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 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 June, it enjoyed another good month (as shown in the chart below) and performed in line with its benchmarks.

It means that the level of outperformance exhibited by my portfolio remains around the widest it's been since the portfolio's inception. I continue to be exceptionally pleased by the portfolio's performance, both over the short-term and the long-term as it continues to go from strength to strength.

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

Once again, there have been some strong performances, especially those funds with exposure to US stocks, after US stock markets continued to rebound and set their own all-time highs. Other top performers include those funds exposed to Asian and emerging market equities, such as Barclays Global Markets Adventurous and Invesco Asian, with each benefiting from the weakening US dollar. Meanwhile, my gold fund and Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select fund were the only holdings to lose money.

Name	% return over the last month (since June review)
Artemis Global Income	4.24
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	2.94
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	2.86
Ninety One UK Special Situations	2.2
Invesco Asian (UK)	2.2
WS Havelock Global Select	1.97
M&G Global Dividend	1.68
Aviva Inv Global Equity Income	1.16
Jupiter China	1.05
Man Japan Core Alpha	0.99
abrdn High Yield Bond	0.81
Schroder Strategic Credit	0.66
iShares Physical Gold ETC	-0.91
Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select	-0.99

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
Aviva Inv Global Equity Income	10	Medium	Global Equity Income	GB0030441918
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	8.5	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	4.5	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
• Aviva Inv Global Equity Income

As is usual I tend to only make changes to those funds that fall into the red list. Interestingly, Barclays Global Markets Adventurous was on the red list last month too. Last time I gave it a stay of execution and was rewarded, as the fund was one of the top performers during the period since my last review (as shown in the earlier table). It has benefited from its exposure to emerging markets which has been one of the top performing asset classes in recent months, due to the surprise weakness in the US dollar. In fact, over the last month the fund has returned 2.25%, ranking it 36th out of 225 funds from the Flexible Investment sector for performance. As such, I am going to give the fund another stay of execution as it has been such a strong performer in the last 2 months, following a turnaround in its fortunes.

It's unusual to see Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select on the red list, which is the longest-serving fund in my portfolio. However, the fund recently made it onto the Consistent funds shortlist so I have no intention, just yet, of removing it.

In fact, I am loathed to make significant changes given the portfolio's overall performance. All of the funds on the red list were either in the BOTB or BFBS lists as recently as last month. Having said that I am aware that my portfolio is overweight in US stocks and underweight UK and European stocks versus the BOTB. I therefore plan to rectify that slightly by reducing my exposure to US stocks and increasing my exposure to UK and European stocks.

To do this I plan to sell my holding in Aviva Inv Global Equity Income and split the proceeds between two of my existing funds while adding a pure European equity fund into my portfolio. The reason why I have chosen to switch out of the Aviva Inv Global Equity Income is that firstly it is a sizeable holding within my portfolio, which has been on the red list on a number of occasions in recent months, but also it finally dropped out of the Consistent funds shortlist.

The performance of the fund has been steady, as you'd expect, but it has largely performed in line with the M&G Global Dividend fund. So for such a significant holding it is not adding a lot of positive alpha to the portfolio. I therefore plan to make the following fund switch.

Fund switch

100% out of Aviva Inv Global Equity Income and then put 20% of the proceeds into Ninety One UK Special Situations, 20%, WS Havelock Global Select 20% and 60% into Artemis SmartGARP European Equity

This switch means that I am backing two of the existing funds in my portfolio which have performed well, particularly Ninety One UK Special Situations. But I am also introducing a European equity fund in Artemis SmartGARP European Equity, which has been a regular on the BOTB lists for some time.

This switch will impact around 10% of my portfolio and will increase my European equity exposure and marginally increase my UK equity exposure while significantly reducing my US equity exposure. This brings my portfolio's asset mix more in line with that of the BOTB and UK equities are now the largest equity component of my portfolio. But in time, I still have some more work to do to further reduce my US equity exposure in favour of UK and European equities, if I am to match the asset mix of 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 performs so strongly, as it has it has been in recent months

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
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

 

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

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
iShares Physical Gold ETC	10
M&G Global Dividend	8
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
Invesco Asian (UK)	8
iShares Physical Gold ETC	9
Jupiter China	4
M&G Global Dividend	7
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