2022 goes down as my worst performance investing so far, with the portfolio down just shy of 20%. It’s small consolation that this was a similar return to the S&P 500 and that many growth-focused funds were down a lot more. While most of the underperformance is down to my focus on quality growth stocks there are some lessons that could help me avoid more of the damage next time.

It has been another tough quarter as the summer rebound gave way to further selling, leaving the market indices and my portfolio currently near their lows for the year. This is unsurprising given the macro outlook. Even as the economy is showing signs of weakening, there is little sign of inflation dissipating yet and most central banks are rapidly tightening interest rates. The inauspicious launch of Trussonomics has added to the general turbulence, causing UK interest rates to rise and causing some concern for mortgagors like me.

In ’real life’ I’ve had a good (albeit quite stressful) year so far. However, in the worlds of geopolitics and investing, 2022 seems likely to go down in the record books as a pretty terrible year, as the extent of the self-inflicted damage from the lunacy that has prevailed for the past couple of years has begun to reveal itself. Oh yeah, and Russia decided to start a war in Europe. For the US stock markets it was the worst first half since 1970. This seems appropriate as the high inflation, rising interest environment has felt reminiscent of the 70s. My portfolio has has its worse ever first half too – down almost 25% (though it has since recovered 5%-odd over the last couple of weeks).

I think it’s fair to say that it’s been a difficult first quarter for most investors, but especially those who invest in growth stocks or small caps. A rout in growth stocks driven by inflation and the anticipation of tightening monetary conditions was compounded by the war in Ukraine. There has been a significant rebound since then but my portfolio is still down by around 10% YTD, having been more than 20% down at one point.

The last quarter was a bit of a rollercoaster, extending the volatility of the previous one. My portfolio and watchlist have hit some speed bumps, with various shares selling off one after the other and only some rebounding. Not everything has been hit but in general small caps seem to have fared relatively worse. The net result is that I have made little progress over the last quarter and have a 13% total return for 2021, underperforming most of my benchmarks over the year for the first time in a while. This is naturally a bit disappointing but could have been a lot worse I suppose.

Recently we passed the anniversary of the first lockdown. It’s hard to fathom that we have spent more than a year largely in social isolation. I’m glad that restrictions are finally starting to be lifted and hopeful that some semblance of normal life may resume soon. It’s a good feeling to start putting more social plans in the calendar even if the possibility of international travel to see family still seems remote. The past few months have been tough. The prospect of commuting to the office and sitting in ‘real life’ meetings has never seemed so appealing.

My portfolio hasn’t made much headway over the past few weeks but I’m pleased not to have suffered too much of the drawdown that afflicted more racy growth stocks. Overall I’m happy with my return of 8.2% YTD.

Well I’m glad to see the back of 2020, a year in which the world truly went to shit. Given the catastrophic hit to GDP, it’s surprising that 2020 turned out to be a very decent year for investors who managed to keep a level head. My overall return for 2020 came in at 34.1%, exceeding my long term average. All in all I’m happy with this result, but I was a bit lucky to be honest.

Three-quarters of the way through the year and the crash we had is already starting to feel like ancient history, given how rapidly the stock market has rebounded since then. On the other hand every day life is sadly still far from back to normal. My portfolio has continued to make good progress over the last three months and I’m pleased with performance of 24% YTD.

We are just halfway through 2020, but it already feels more eventful than the past few years combined. I’ve had to restrain myself from overusing the word ‘unprecedented’, apt as it is for describing many of this years events. Despite the fastest stock market crash in history and a cack-handed attempt at market timing, my performance so far this year has actual turned out OK at around 13% YTD.

I, like many investors, am glad to be seeing the back of that quarter. The Coronavirus has caused a rapid crash over the last month in most stock markets across the world. This has left the FTSE 100 down 27.9% and the S&P 500 down 22.9% over the last three months. My portfolio hasn’t fared a great deal better at 18.4% down. It doesn’t look like we are quite out of the woods yet.

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