A couple of years ago, this review was reporting five years of market-beating performance and numbers that would have been the envy of the majority of UK active fund managers. However, the past two years have been torrid for our Tips of the Year. A savaging in 2017 has been followed by further underperformance of the FTSE All-Share index in 2018 – albeit a bit less stark than the preceding year. Sadly the numbers in the table below and the story told by the accompanying chart speak for themselves. The performance stats don’t tell the individual story of the stocks tipped in 2018, though, and this review aims to provide a bit more colour on that front. Most of the picks from last year are ones the IC remains keen on, and where we have tempered our enthusiasm we have only downgraded recommendations to holds rather than outright sell. So, here's the story of the past 12 months from the perspective of our 2018 Tips of the Year, as well as our companies writers' views on their prospects.
Tips of the Year 2018 performance