Future blogs will improve the style of this data “dump”, but attached below is the current full portfolio for March, along with cost/values in GBP. I have not included percentages, but my aim is for “fund” to eventually make up 50% of the below, with 50% being self selected shares. We are currently far higher percentage wise on “funds” however at current market values. 25% of the fund should remain as a passive investment with Vanguard Lifestrategy 60 as the bedrock, and “target” to beat for the rest of the SIPP.
Every month £1000 is added to the portfolio, with it being split in last month into the shares marked in italics below with £100 going to each option – which shares get added to do change monthly to rebalance – typically the “less” profitable shares get the topups. I am using interactive investors “regular” trade option to pound cost average down the trades, so trading fees are £1, and stamp duty where effective is 50p. This compares identically to a real time trade of £10 of £1000.
| Share/Fund | Original Cost | Current P&L |
| Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% ACC | 5249.95 | 311.58 |
| BP | 3545.53 | 416.60 |
| Capital Gearing Trust | 2228.25 | 1.95 |
| Direct Line | 952.47 | -5.42 |
| Fidelity China Special Situations | 396 | 21.36 |
| Funding Circle SME Income | 299.14 | -47.09 |
| Fundsmith Equity T Acc | 574.99 | 39.80 |
| Milton European Opportunities B ACC | 900.01 | 16.10 |
| Lindsell Train Japanese Equity B Sterling Hedged | 200 | 2.55 |
| Mears Group | 98.07 | -3.39 |
| Merian UK Smaller Companies Fund R ACC | 600 | 20.11 |
| Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Plc | 985.88 | -40.91 |
| Smithson Investment Trust Plc | 365.86 | 13.24 |
| SSE Plc | 1299.77 | 20.72 |
| Threadneedle European High Yield Bond 3G | 550 | -11.19 |
| Woodford Patient Capital Trust Plc | 1147.86 | -42.52 |
| Baillie Gifford Japanese Smaller Co B ACC | 899.75 | -14.15 |
| BT | 843.84 | 7.07 |
Total Profit over last 12 months: ~707.91 GBP (above was from real-time data so may be slightly out!). Not bad for what was a bad year overall for the markets and given ~ 10k of the funding was drip fed over the year it is no wonder that the returns are lower than the top 3 investments, which were bulk purchased at the start.
The return to beat is the Vanguard LifeStrategy piece is the 60% – which returned ~5.9% the previous year as a whole. Given the total portfolio was funded initially mostly on this – as a whole the portfolio has under performed this. However, this excludes for most part any Dividend in past 12 months, making the BP Figures in particular very out. BP comfortably outperformed LifeStrategy, and generated double the return from a smaller investment overall when this is taken into account. As this was my largest “pick” of all the shares outside of the Fund list, this firms up my strategy of picking under priced shares, and holding, and reinvesting Dividends.
The “new” share added this month to the Portfolio is Mears group, following what the market saw as disappointing results. I however found this to be a company that has a high potential for recovery in future, with a potential upside of 30-40% + dividend over next 2 years. I will do a seperate post on the indicators that lead to this conclusion. But I will be adding to this holding over next few months unless the market does recover by 30-40%. This was in my Targets list previously from a search, so I know the fundamentals looked reasonable for this option.
Next month I plan do not plan to add any new share, and likely will not change the distribution in the short term, unless market conditions change. I appreciate I will need to keep re-adding funds back to Vanguard in a few months, as this is dropping below my 25% target for this holding. Changes from last month include re-adding Woodford Patient Capital to monthly top ups following the Woodford Equity reshuffle at a premium (they paid 95p). Given this currently is a 15% discount to NAV, thats month I’m (hopefully) locking in for later. Also have put BT back to the “purchase” list, as both have had recent falls in value – similar reasons.
Overall there are likely too many funds/shares in the portfolio right now, however, it is being 20% weighted with new funds to Japan ahead of Brexit, as I suspect Japan will benefit greatly if the UK economy takes a nosedive. Lindsell Train Japan is also mainly because of their 10% Nintendo holding – I sense this will be a winner, and I can’t easily “drip” feed into the Japanese markets without using a fund. As a gamer don’t bet against Mario, Nintendo and Zelda, as I see Mario and Zelda as a moat that other gaming firms dream of holding.
As a whole the portfolio is also considerably underweight ref: Asian equities, and I need to find a fund for Asia/Australian assets as soon as reasonably possible.
After I have filled that gap – I suspect the next decision are on other “shares” to rebalance to 50% directly held shares. At moment that percentage is ~40% so I have a way to go on that. I also will be too highly weighted to WPCT soon, so will need to switch to another option – however I still feel that I should invest when the fund is trading below my “value” figure.
I’m still unsure about SSE as a longer term holding – but thats a blog for another day.