Since starting investing years ago i have moved from barely tracking overall performance to annual reviews which attempt to track overall portfolio performance but this is hindered by the my various accounts, cash balances and leverages that have been used. My investing style was varied, entirely discretionary and ad-hoc.

I would like to more clearly track portfolio performance and furthermore i want to improve my investing returns which have led me to create a number of factor based systematic portfolios – heavily influenced by the collation and summary of investing research by the team at Stockopedia.

On my ‘Performance’ page you will see the portfolios i have ran in the past and those i will either continue or create.

Personal/StockRanks NAPS Mix (discontinued) portfolio.

This is the model portfolio i’ve tracked on this blog for 3 years based loosely on a NAPS High StockRank portfolio. I selected at the start of each year a numer of companies that either had a fairly high stock rank or that i simply found attractive for one reason or another. I will no longer continue this portfolio as i moved to a stricter rules based approach.

A year ago I created the following model portfolios to track – some of which are entirely mechanical, some are mechanical but allow some personal discretion, some also allow short positions. My hope is to build up a track record over time and discover whether i can beat the mechanical portfolio with a little of my own stock picking (within rules).

I’ll post the 2019 results in a separate post – but realise that i need to lay out the portfolios and rules first!

Description and Summary of Portfolios

StockRanks NAPS (long/short)

1. A Portfolio of approximately 36 to 40 stocks. Half being long and half being shorts.
2. Longs are stocks with a market cap > £20M and i pick two stocks (StockRank > 90) of my choice from each of 10 sectors on Stockopedia.
3. Shorts are half the position size of longs with mkt cap > £150m and i select 2 stocks with StockRank <30 from each of 10 sectors. I can choose not to pick a short if none fit the criteria. In working out annual performance i will assume longs make 2/3rds of the annual performance figure and shorts 1/3rd.
4. I have some choice in which stocks to choose as long as they fit the above rules i can select the ones i want – often this gives me a choice from a couple that meet the criteria. I may want to look at price chart for shorts for example to avoid bottoming or curving up charts.
5. Portfolio revised and re-balanced annually.

StockRanks NAPS (long only)

This is the long only part of the above portfolio.

Mechanical StockRanks NAPS

This mimics the above portfolio but with no discretion – simply choose the highest or lowest ranked stocks.

1. Longs are stocks with market cap > £20M and the two highest ranking stocks from each of 10 sectors are selected.
2. Shorts are half size of longs with mkt cap > £150m and the 2 lowest from each of ten sectors are selected.
3. Shorts are selected even if the stock rank of the lowest in the sector is not *that* low.
4. I have no discretion or choice in stock selection – it is entirely rules based.
5. Portfolio revised and re-balanced annually.

UK Large Caps StockRanks NAPS

1. A portfolio of approximately 20 companies.
2. Each company must be > £1bn minimum market cap at selection.
3. I pick two stocks (StockRank > 90) of my choice from each of 10 sectors. If there are insufficent stocks with StockRank >90 I may move to choose from stocks >80 else I will not select a stock if none fit this criteria.
4. Each stock will be a 4.5% position.
5. I can then choose 3 positions at my complete discretion as long as they are over £1bn market cap. For 2019 these were tetragon and randgold.

Personal Purely Discretionary

1. This is my bucket for purely discretionary stock picks and trading. This may include longs and shorts. In 2017 I included crypto currency trades in this portfolio however I may separate these in the future.
2. Can include growth/excitement style.
3.  The place where I can put resource companies, high growth and other stocks thta may not necessarily have a high stock rank.

General Guidance for personal portfolios.

1. I want to be able to select high stock rank companies that other investors online also really like – it’s a double confirmation imo of a stocks appeal.
2. Use stops (and limits) for every position so constant monitoring is not required.
3. I only sell every 3 months – else I use limit orders. I can open a new position with a stop at any time.

Family Member Portfolio – Discretionary

This is a portfolio i’ve managed on a purely discretionary basis for a family member which is now discontinued as money was required for a property purchase.

UK Stock Challenge Competition

This is the 5 stock portfolio selected at www.stockchallenge.co.uk every year under alias shauniekent.