Jekyll & Hyde

From ChatGPT:

“The premise of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson is a psychological and moral experiment taken to its catastrophic conclusion.

Dr. Henry Jekyll, a respected London physician, becomes obsessed with the idea that human beings are not unified personalities but composites of opposing forces — broadly, civilized virtue vs. primal impulse.

He develops a chemical serum designed to separate these elements, allowing each side to exist independently.

The experiment succeeds — but asymmetrically.

The moral, socially acceptable identity remains Jekyll. The uninhibited, amoral persona emerges as Edward Hyde.

Hyde is not merely less restrained; he is concentrated malevolence, physically smaller and vaguely deformed — a suggestion that evil is both regressive and evolutionarily primitive”.

Markets are Jekyll one day, Hyde the next.

The above introduction brings me neatly to today’s blog subject. The daily rapid gyrations of our investment portfolios that we are all currently experiencing. We manage somewhere between £106 million and £113 million, seemingly dependent on what day of the week it is. These daily extremes are un-typically poles apart – like Jekyll and Hyde. Two sides of the same coin. A battle unfolding not between good investors versus evil investors, but to a great extent those invested for long term steady reward, versus those who see the markets purely in the short term. Investors versus speculators. Those of us who pick and hold long term investment opportunities and themes, against those who gamble daily on a commodity or share price. Any commodity or share price. Rising or falling in the next day, hour, minute and even second. Typically your crypto-currency speculators. In then out quickly.

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December 2025 Performance Review

Happy New Year!

In all of the charts below, each of our managed portfolios are shown by the bold green line. Our peers performance is shown in blue and purple lines.

Performance is shown net of our fees, trading fees and Transact fees.

This quarterly review shows our performance versus our industry peer group across our portfolios for a rolling 3 year period.

Our Cautious Portfolio

Our Cautious Managed Portfolio unfortunately is not a fair comparison versus its peer group as care home fees of several thousand pounds are withdrawn each month for the client in question. This reducing balance has blunted the true performance somewhat.

Our Moderate Portfolio

Our Aggressive Portfolio

Our Very Aggressive Portfolio

Our Very Aggressive Portfolio lost a little ground versus our Aggressive Portfolio whilst we exited some speculative positions before we could buy some precious metals and miners.

Each of the charts above are actual client portfolios.

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Merry Christmas

Howard, Lesley, Melissa, Charlotte & Obi wish you a peaceful Christmas & a prosperous New Year.

The office will close tomorrow, but as usual we will be responding to urgent emails on all non-holiday days.

The office will open once again on the 5th January.