Damien’s October 2025 portfolio review – Doubled my money

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.

It has been another exceptionally strong month for my portfolio. Since the last review on 9th September, the portfolio has returned 3.22%, once again beating both its benchmarks. The 50k Challenge Benchmark returned 2.68% and the average managed multi-asset fund returned 2.48%, as shown below.

The big news, however, is that this strong monthly performance has pushed my portfolio’s total value over a significant milestone. I am incredibly proud to announce that the initial £50,000 investment has now officially doubled, with the portfolio’s value standing at £101,155.

This means the total return since inception in March 2015 is now 102.31%. This compares to 73.73% for the 50k Challenge Benchmark and just 61.56% for the average managed multi-asset fund. The portfolio would also remain in 26th position in the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector (if it were a member), and its outperformance over the sector average has once again stretched to its widest-ever margin, now standing at a remarkable 22.83%.

Looking at the individual funds (see table below), this month’s performance was driven by a significant rally in gold, with the iShares Physical Gold ETC leading the way with a stunning 6.99% return. My Asian and Chinese holdings also performed incredibly well, with Jupiter China and Invesco Asian (UK) returning 6.94% and 6.52% respectively. At the other end of the scale, the bond funds, abrdn High Yield Bond and Schroder Strategic Credit, were the laggards, though they still produced small positive returns.

Name	% return over the last month (since September review)
iShares Physical Gold ETC	6.99
Jupiter China	6.94
Invesco Asian (UK)	6.52
Artemis Global Income	4.33
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	4.23
T. Rowe Price US Large Cap Growth Equity	3.69
Barclays Global Markets Adventurous	3.31
Ninety One UK Special Situations	2.82
WS Havelock Global Select	2.75
Fidelity Global Dividend	2.36
L&G Multi-Asset Target Return	1.90
Man Japan Core Alpha	1.60
abrdn High Yield Bond	0.68
Schroder Strategic Credit	0.58

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
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
L&G Multi-Asset Target Return	5.5	Lower	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BD97XY71
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
WS Havelock Global Select	6.5	Higher	Global	GB00BFM7DN78

That means that only one fund is on the red list this month, having fallen out of the BOTB and BFBS tables, namely:

• WS Havelock Global Select

This is the fewest number of funds outside of the BOTB or BFBS lists for some time. The portfolio isn't just doing well from a performance perspective but also in terms of risk management. Sharpe Ratio is a measure of the excess return a manager is achieving for the risk they are taking. The higher the Sharpe Ratio the better. If my portfolio had been a fund residing in the Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector, over the last 10 years, it would be ranked 12th for Sharpe ratio, out of 143 funds. Or in other words I have achieved this outperformance without taking excessive investment risk. That is as important as the overall return itself.

Given the portfolio's robust performance I have decided not to make any changes this month. There is no urgency to switch out of WS Havelock Global Select, given that it was in the BFBS little over a month ago, plus it achieved a return of 2.75% since my last portfolio review in September after I gave it a stay of execution. Given its recent performance I will maintain the fund for now, keep it on my watchlist and review it again next month. My aim is to continue to try and ride the positive momentum the portfolio is enjoying, until such time as it fades.

As an aside, last month I switched from Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select to L&G Multi-Asset Target Return in the lower risk end of my portfolio. Since the switch, the L&G fund is up 1.90%, while Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select, is up only 0.87% (as shown below). While it is still too soon to say whether the move will ultimately prove the right one, the early signs are certainly positive.

Due to the fact that I am not making any changes to my portfolio this month, its overall asset mix also remains unchanged. Last month, I noted that my portfolio's asset mix differed from that of the BOTB, with a lower UK equity exposure and a higher US equity exposure. However, I was not too concerned especially as my portfolio had been performing so strongly. Interestingly in October the BOTB's UK equity exposure has dropped from 21% to 15%, in line with my £50k portfolio. So my asset mix is now more in line with that of the BOTB, although it still has a slightly higher US equity exposure and a lower Asia / Emerging market equity exposure. However, I am happy with my portfolio's asset mix for now.

Fund switch

I am not making any fund switches this month.

My portfolio

My portfolio still 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
L&G Multi-Asset Target Return	5.5	Lower	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BD97XY71
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
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% (11%)
• Asian Equities 4% (4%)
• Chinese Equities 4% (4%)
• Emerging Market Equities 4% (4%)
• Japanese Equities 6% (6%)
• European Equities 14% (14%)
• Other International equity 6% (6%)
• 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
L&G Multi-Asset Target Return	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