The Outperforming and Overlooked investment trust stock screen I developed last year has produced solid outperformance over the past 12 months delivering a total return of 8.5 per cent compared with a 3.2 per cent negative return from the S&P Global 1200 and a negative 1.4 per cent from the FTSE All-Share. But behind the robust headline numbers, lies what has been an eventful year, to say the least.
It is the trend-following nature of this screen that has made for a year of high drama as 12 months ago the strategy latched on to two of the biggest and most volatile investment themes of the period: China and Biotech. The rules I devised for the screen in order to limit excessive exposure to niche asset classes meant the overall performance of the portfolio was not too ridiculously skewed to the fortunes of these sectors. Nevertheless, the rise and fall of these sectors is clearly evident in the graph below.
Outperforming and overlooked trusts vs indices