Damien’s March 2026 portfolio review – 11 years of outperformance

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.

11 years of outperformance

The chart below shows how my portfolio has outperformed since I started the challenge in March 2015, exactly 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.

It seems hard to believe that I have been running my live portfolio for 11 years, which in itself is a huge achievement. Every decision, fund switch and outcome has been documented in real-time to demonstrate how you can manage your own money. The long-term performance of the portfolio has also been incredible, and the portfolio has grown to £114,630. If my portfolio had resided in the Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector, it would have ranked 13th out of 133 funds, meaning that I outperformed 120 professional multi-asset fund managers with over £75bn of the public's money under their management.

 

But performance is only part of the story, as how you attained it is just as important. The table below shows the key statistical metrics when it comes to analysing a fund manager's performance, along with where my portfolio would rank in a league table of fund managers from the Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector for each statistic. Below the table is a brief explanation of what each statistic represents. In summary, I squeezed more return from the risk I was taking than almost every other fund manager (the Sharpe ratio), with a much lower level of volatility.

Statistic	Value (annualised)	Rank within the  Mixed 40-85% Shares sector
Alpha	1.65	21st out of 133
Sharpe	0.49	6th out of 133
Sortino	0.41	9th out of 133
Volatility	8.67	19th out of 133

• Alpha measures the extra performance a fund manager adds beyond just riding the market benchmark. A higher alpha number shows that the investment selection is genuinely adding value rather than just being lucky in a rising market.
• The Sharpe ratio measures the excess return a manager achieves for the risk they are taking. A higher ratio is always better. It tells me whether a fund is generating its profits efficiently or just taking reckless gambles.
• The Sortino ratio refines the Sharpe ratio by only focusing on downward volatility. It helps me identify which managers genuinely protect capital during market sell-offs while still capturing gains.
• Volatility is simply a measure of how much a fund's price swings up and down. The lower the volatility, the less bumpy the ride.

When discussing the performance of the portfolio, especially during periods of positive momentum, I always stress that the investment backdrop can and will change and that past performance isn't a guide to future returns.

A dramatic example of this is occurring right now, following last weekend's attack by President Trump on Iran. The situation in the Middle East could have huge global repercussions both politically and economically. While I won't analyse market movements in this article, as I will cover them in upcoming newsletters, it suffices to say that when a Black Swan event, such as we've seen, occurs, the market's reaction is usually violent and chaotic. This is what we've seen in recent days as global equities and bonds have tumbled in tandem. Even gold has slumped in an environment where the only asset not losing value is cash.

With that said, the chart below shows the performance of my £50k portfolio since my last portfolio review, taking into account the latest market falls. You can see how my portfolio was riding high before the weekend's events and has since fallen back in line with its benchmarks.

The table below shows the performance of individual funds within my portfolio over the last month, up until last Friday (before the attack on Iran) and also up to the close of play yesterday. As you can see, the difference in the performance numbers is stark. Asian and Japanese equities have been hit particularly hard by the fallout from events in the Middle East, partly as a result of a sudden strengthening of the US dollar. Indeed, a stop loss alert was triggered on Man Group Man Japan Core Alpha today. But even gold has taken a hit in recent days. Long-time 80-20 Investor members will recall similar levels of volatility across asset classes when Russia initially invaded Ukraine.

Name	Performance from the last review (3rd Feb) up to 28th February	Performance from the last review up to 3rd March
Man Japan Core Alpha	11.57	2.51
iShares Physical Gold ETC	8.16	5.36
Fidelity Global Dividend	7.37	4.16
Premier Miton Multi-Asset Growth & Income	6.64	5.43
Artemis Global Income	6.55	2.48
Invesco Asian (UK)	4.79	0.81
Ninety One UK Special Situations	4.34	0.45
M&G Global Strategic Value	4.23	1.24
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	3.82	-3.28
abrdn Strategic Bond	0.97	-0.28
Schroder Strategic Credit	0.55	0
abrdn High Yield Bond	0.22	-0.6

For completeness, 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

That means 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)

Two of the funds, namely Ninety One UK Special Situations and Schroder Strategic Credit, were also on the red list from last month. Invesco Asian (UK) is a new entrant on the list, but it was in the BFBS tables as recently as late February.

The reality is that we are in an extremely volatile market environment where almost every asset is in decline and overreacting to the latest news headlines. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have decided not to make any changes to my portfolio this month. While such events naturally trigger short-term market volatility and can tempt investors into making knee-jerk reactions, experience has taught me that to second-guess sudden macro-level shocks is a fool's errand. Instead, I will continue to trust the 80-20 Investor process that has fared so well over the last 11 years, as shown above and avoid making hasty decisions based purely on the news cycle. My investment process has navigated wars, recessions, a pandemic and numerous Trump-induced bouts of market volatility. That is not to say my portfolio won't fall in value if the situation in the Middle East is not quickly resolved, or indeed underperform. But in these circumstances, I focus on the long-term. So for now, I will leave my portfolio unchanged, but reserve the right to review it again in the near future if things change.

Fund switches

I am making no fund switches this month.

My portfolio remains 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
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

 

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 8% (8%)
• Asian Equities 10% (10%)
• Emerging Market Equities 5% (5%)
• Japanese Equities 9% (9%)
• European Equities 12% (12%)
• Other International Equities 6% (6%)
• Commodities and energy 8% (8%)
• UK Fixed Interest 5% (5%)
• Global Fixed Interest 19% (19%)
• Cash 0% (0%)
• Alternative Investment Strategies 4% (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	18
abrdn Strategic Bond	7
Artemis Global Income	22
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	10
Fidelity Global Dividend	9
iShares Physical Gold ETC	12
Premier Miton Multi-Asset Growth & Income	12
Schroder Strategic Credit	10

 

Higher risk

Fund	Allocation %
Artemis Global Income	20
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	9
Fidelity Global Dividend	8
Invesco Asian (UK)	12
iShares Physical Gold ETC	11
M&G Global Strategic Value	6
Man Group Man Japan Core Alpha	9
Ninety One UK Special Situations	14
Premier Miton Multi-Asset Growth & Income	11