2019 key articles

A good idea is worth its weight in gold. An avalanche of commentary is counter-productive. We need to see the wood and not the trees. Fund Hunter targets quality over quantity for this reason – less is hopefully more.

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds   - John Maynard Keynes

Fund Hunter seeks to escape the old ideas. The best way of doing this is to focus on first principals. What is the investment problem? What is the best solution? How are stocks valued? Why do stocks go up?

Markets are emotional and subject to frequent changes of mood. We shouldn’t let Mr Market’s mood swings influence us - easy in principle and hard in practice.

What matters is getting the long-term direction of travel right. Information overload is unhelpful in this regard.

Fund Hunter performance in 2019

The Fund Hunter model portfolio increased 26.7% in 2019 versus a 19.2% increase in the FTSE All-Share. This was despite a near 6% jump in the pound and a rebound in UK stocks in the second half of 2019.

The twin fears of a hard Brexit and a Corbyn-led government melted away.

The performance since the start of 2020 is currently 6.8% versus 0.5% for the FTSE All-Share. The total return since the start of 2019 is 35.4% versus 19.7% or the FTSE All-Share.

Fund Hunter model portfolio: start 2019 to Jan 24, 2020

Source: SharePad