Over recent months I have had a number of requests regarding Voyager holdings and their performance etc. Now I should say and I am sure most readers will know that I take a view of performance based on a minimum of three years; simply miles less stressful and more realistic in terms of investment objectives. In reality, the only true assessment of portfolio performance can be made by the person nominated as executor for your estate once the grim reaper has visited. Of course, by that time it’s too late to write or tweet! Generally, I don’t tend to look at bottom line portfolio progress over small time frames although I do continually review individual performance in order to either root out detractors or add to compelling situations. So, briefly, the following two tables offer a flavour of how performance of firstly long term holdings held over the 3x Financial Year period FY 2016/17 to FY 2018/19 as a cumulative change and then the performance stock by stock during this financial year. The second table considers residents added over the last six months that are still part of Voyager. Note: I always work to the financial year and never a calendar year; done it this way for the last 25 years and it, of course, fits in with the tax year. The selection criteria for Voyager stocks is based upon my favoured criteria to identify stocks with the following characteristics:
PE is never the driver but merely a safety or sanity check: sometimes a stock will have a high PE because of its business success alternatively, others may be chased crazily high just spelling RISK. For a more comprehensive outline of the approach, see my article: Staying Safe on The Planet Aim: The Planet Revisited, published at the end of April 2019. Over the past three financial years, eight of the nine stocks in Table 1 have been resident in the Voyager for all three years and the ninth, GAW, for two of those years. I have included BVXP which I held for around five years but sold at just under £40 in late March 2019. Table 1 Long Term Residents of Voyager DTG has kept its place in Voyager despite not been stunning over the last three years. It has delivered a four-fold return since purchase in 2013 and with the gradual transformation of the business, there is more to come in my opinion. Note other stocks have had periods of residence in the folio for maybe as much as a year or two or even as little as a couple of months: sales being determined by taking profits on overheating or minimizing loss. I reckon every private investor has to bury their ego and appreciate that their stock selection may not produce significant winners maybe half of the time. The important thing being to weed out the detractors before they can damage the portfolio and keep stepwise adding to the winners when deemed appropriate: it’s invariably the handful of real top performers that greatly influence portfolio success. It does not necessarily mean that a detractor is a bad stock; might just be that momentum and buying volume are not smiling on that stock at the time. Note: a profits warning is a different case and the initial loss on the day is something rather outside of your control. Table 2 below lists stocks that have been added to the Voyager over last 6 months Note: PMP position building started greater than 6 months ago but for simplicity fits better with Table 2 timeframe.
I also operate two other portfolios which are rather dwarfed by the Voyager. These two portfolios are: Firstly a special situations portfolio not based on my usual Voyager criteria but more based on where something is happening to that has in my opinion, a chance of improving the fortunes of the business. This could be something potentially transformational, a potential bid situation, a turnaround situation, neglected/under the radar etc. Simply opportunistic stuff really but it works rather well. Secondly, a high yield portfolio based mainly on what I consider to be quality small companies that offer dividends that are well covered by free cash flow with the added benefit of capital growth via the stocks being reasonably valued. All of the stocks mentioned here have been reviewed in the Voyager since the start of publication of the Voyager Log. As ever, happy investing and remember it’s only money and once you pass the threshold of relative comfort, it ain’t really that important as you are never likely to spend it all.
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