Category: Investment returns

Every month I calculate my investment portfolio’s returns to date. I’ve been tracking the portfolio in detail since the end of 2012.  With 2015 now complete I now have three years of returns to examine.

December was an extraordinary month for me because during the month I bought a house.  On 1 December this wasn’t anticipated at all.  By 22 December I had exchanged and stumped up a hefty six figure deposit – all paid for by liquidating my investment portfolio.  During the month the UK stock market (the blue line UKX below) in particular fell 7%, which goes to show why you should never use the equity markets as a savings account.

Continue reading “My December returns – month 36” →

I’ve just posted by monthly returns for November.

The market, weighted according to my allocation, was up about 1.2% in the month.  I was up a bit more than that, which I don’t attribute to anything except luck. My 12 month returns are around 6%.  This is no Warren Buffet performance, but is not too shabby either considering the pummelling equities got in the summer.

Points I find noteworthy for November:

• The Australian market fall, unlike its international peers.  Equities were down about 1%, and fixed income about 0.5%.
• Bond bears can weep.  Again. Uk corporate bonds rose 2.7%.  In a month.
• UK/US equities were up ~1%.  This leaves US equities recovered from the summer dips, UK equities slightly behind, and other markets slightly down too.

October was a very positive month for equity returns.  I’ve just updated my portfolio returns page, and my invested portfolio rose in value by 4.0%.  This doesn’t recover the losses of the last two months, but it certainly retrieves some of the portfolio’s poise: my 12 month return stands at +6.7%.

The coloured grid below shows the relative performance by sector for each of the last few months.  You can see the equity markets are pretty correlated, but highly volatile; by contrast Fixed Income (and cash, obviously) are much more steady-as-she-goes.

Continue reading “My investment returns in October – the market’s yo-yo spins upwards” →