The blog model portfolio generated a return of 10% for the fiscal quarter ended December 31st 2012. This placed the fund at the #1 spot among the 16 peer sample funds for the quarter. The degree of outperformance was statistically significant; the closest of the peer group funds earned a positive 7.6% for the quarter.
For the fiscal year, the blog model portfolio generated a total return of 34.8%. This also placed the fund at the #1 spot among the 16 funds in the peer sample for the fiscal and calendar year. The best performing fund of the public peer sample, in comparison, earned 22.65% for 2012. The blog model account outperformed that fund by 12.15% on an absolute basis during the year. Put another way, the blog model account returns bested the top performing fund, in the peer sample, by more than 53% during 2012.
Since the inception of the blog model portfolio, the fund stands FIRMLY at the #1 spot among the 16 funds in the peer sample.
The blog model portfolio’s performance is quite comparable to the 2012 (GIPS compliant) 34.4% return reported from Marketocracy Inc.’s RMG#1 CORE LARGE CAP global portfolio, also managed by the author.
As of December 31st. 2012, RMG#1’s returns, for the past 12 years, averaged 19.4% per annum, net of fees and expenses. A $1 million investment in RMG#1 at inception date (July 18th, 2000) is worth $9.11 million, at the close of business on December 31st, 2012.
The returns of RMG#1, both on a short, medium and long term perspective, deserve to be placed into some relevant context. As a frame of reference, Morningstar had recently introduced their list of nominees for 2012 U.S. domestic fund manager of the year and the 2012 International fund manager of the year.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nominees-international-stock-fund-manager-120000175.html
In the category that RMG#1 competes (International large cap fund); the 2012 result would have placed this author’s fund in the #1 spot among all candidates. In fact, RMG#1, in 2012, outperformed ALL of the Morningstar candidates of the year.
Over the past dozen years, the return of RMG#1 has eclipsed that the nominee group. All the while, RMG#1 has practiced a remarkably low turn buy-and-hold policy. The media and the majority of the professional and retail marketplace have pronounced the buy-and-hold to be dead; based upon RMG#1’s return and style, such assertions are clearly false.
Immutable principals govern individual equity selection and investment allocation. DIY investors need to make diligent efforts to overcome confirmation bias, to practice diversification between individual securities, industry groups and among nations. Individuals must work daily to improve their financial knowledge; reading an analyst report that merely confirms one's bias, paraphrasing said report and then using the words "due diligence" in a sentence is not, in of itself, actual investment research. Most "do it yourself" investors that fail to consistently outperform typically flail away, aimlessly, in the equity selection process or in allocation decisions; they have only themselves to blame for sub-par returns. Undisciplined herd following and indiscriminate buying and selling of equities, without regard for underlying business & economic fundamentals; these practices, when combined with a failure to understand the basics of balance sheets, represent a recipe for inferior results and in some cases, financial ruin.
The corollary is that a savvy investor who refuses to follow the herd, that is highly discriminating in the equity selection process, that fully understands balance sheets and employs time-tested principles of diversification in industries, in nations and in securities: such an investor, when endowed with an unflappable disposition and an ability to fend off both envious & prolix critics as well as artful sycophants, stands to excel.
As previously detailed on 7/19/12, this author had elected to discontinue the public issuance of free research and updates on securities held within the blog model portfolio and personally. Subsequent to that decision, a flurry of emails, telephone calls and personal inquiries were received globally from institutions and high net worth individuals.
The cessation of the freely disseminated research, in conjunction with the simultaneous elimination of support for SMA accounts that had figuratively gifted away the portfolio’s alpha to anyone with a pulse (embarrassingly low minimum investment requirements) did produce an unanticipated outcome. A surprising number of large investment capital pools identified themselves almost immediately. These pools confirmed a preparedness to commence payment of prevailing market rates in exchange for uninterrupted access to this author’s work.
As it stands, significant external demand exists, on a global basis, for this author to forge ahead. Therefore, after some consultation with various ultra-high net worth individual investors & institutions, a highly EXCLUSIVE private research portal has been created. My new site will continue to monitor the returns earned by the large cap core account and illuminate important global investment trends for the 21st century. Portal annual fees are 13.1% lower than an industry associate membership in the World Economic Forum. Membership in Davos is principally a networking opportunity, one that is apparently designed for global CEO’s to privately commiserate about life’s difficulties for the 1%. Alternatively, my work, historically, has been proven to be highly actionable.
An adjunct to my research portal; several global boutiques have agreed to partner and offer my work in the SMA arena. They are doing so using my stringent qualification criteria. My inviolate requirement was that the SMA minimum rise/fall in tandem with the current portfolio account valuation; this presently stands at $9.11 million US. Qualified parties are free to contact the author; I will ONLY respond to inquiries regarding the purchase of a portal research subscription or to provide referral information for firms that offer mirror SMA account opportunities, in their relevant jurisdiction.