2022…Post-Pandemic Hangover

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Alphabet, annual review, balance sheet, crypto, Donegal Investment Group, KR1, KR1 plc, multi-bagger, owner-operators, portfolio allocation, portfolio performance, Record plc, Saga Furs, Tetragon Financial Group, VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund

Seems like everyone on Twitter (if they didn’t just disappear already) scrambled to post their 2022 returns this year, either to bury a horrific result in the New Year’s rush, or because they’re one of the few who can boast a minor loss (or even a gain!) last year. As always, especially if you’re nursing your own portfolio (& pride) after an excruciating year, you should take all of this with a grain of salt…because, alas, it’s Twitter’s job to surface the outliers & the blowhards, so #FinTwit is definitely NOT a good (or even accurate) benchmark to reference as an investor in good years, let alone bad.

But as always, I’m here with a genuine/auditable portfolio, where all changes (if any) to my disclosed holdings have been tracked here & on Twitter on a real-time basis, for over a decade now. [Seriously, if you’re a new reader, take a peep: There’s countless posts on old & current portfolio holdings, plus my entire investing philosophy & approach…some of which may even be useful & interesting today!] And this year, my main (selfless) purpose is to make you feel better about your own performance. ‘Cos yeah, you probably did much better than me…and if you didn’t, maybe you should question your investing choices!? And I want to remind you: a) it could be worse, there’s plenty of bad ‘investors’ out there who’ve been trapped in a savage bear market for two years now (since Q1-2021), and b) once again that, esp. noting the past year, nobody knows anything…

So let’s jump right in, here’s the damage in benchmark terms – my FY-2022 Benchmark Return is still* a simple average of the four main indices which best represent my portfolio, which produced a benchmark (11.8)% loss:

[*NB: As I flagged this time last year, I adopted the STOXX Euro 600 as my new European index in 2022.]

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2021…Wow, Another Crazy (Good) Year!

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Alphabet, annual review, balance sheet, bubble thesis, crypto, Donegal Investment Group, inflation, KR1, KR1 plc, multi-bagger, owner-operators, portfolio allocation, portfolio performance, Record plc, Saga Furs, Tetragon Financial Group, VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund

At this point, maybe you’re done with 2021 – right?!

But face it, we gotta look back to figure out how we arrived…in this mess today! And hopefully recall & reinforce any lessons learned. ‘Cos sure, there’s plenty of good & bad luck involved, but outcomes for both nations & investors are ultimately a result of our (cumulative) decisions & actions, often stretching back years. And last year, as the pandemic dragged on, our drinking problem got a wee bit out of control & we enjoyed that punchbowl just a little too long. And now it feels like the inevitable hangover’s finally starting to kick in.

Well, except for those who started early…God love ’em, how many punters have been trapped in a savage bear market for almost a year now?!

But for the rest of us, last year’s market was the pandemic silver lining. As always, the US led the way with a 26.9% gain in the S&P 500. [The Nasdaq still clocked up a magnificent 21.4% gain, despite some sectors being deep in bear market territory]. Europe was nearly as magnificent, with the Bloomberg Euro 500 clocking a 19.7% gain. And Ireland & the UK brought up the rear, but still delivered higher than average returns, with a 14.5% gain for the ISEQ & a 14.3% gain for the FTSE 100. [On both sides of the Atlantic, the FTSE 250 & the Russell 2000 enjoyed similar 14% gains, whereas a risk-off/stonk bear market reduced the AIM All-Share to a mere 5.2% gain]. Notably, despite H2 price reversals & increasing volatility, all major indices – with the exception of the ISEQ – climbed steadily & closed out the year near annual/all-time highs.

My FY-2021 Benchmark Return remains* a simple average of the four main indices which best represent my portfolio…overall, they produced a benchmark 18.8% gain:

Hitting The Century (VI – Real Assets)

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agri-business, balance sheet, bank lending, churning, commercial property, de-leveraging, deflation, ECB, Fed, gold, inflation, natural resource stocks, portfolio allocation, residential property

Oh well, back to the grind..! Continued from here, and I guess here: I actually started writing this post the other day, but quickly got side-tracked into a different post – after all, one can’t really talk about real assets without first taking on inflation! For reference, here’s a reprint of my investment allocation pie-chart: