NAPS Portfolio Q1 2025 Review - and a new all time high

Well the last few weeks have been a bumpy ride to say the least, but oddly enough the The NAPS Portfolio portfolio closed yesterday at a new high. This is a portfolio that I’ve been running for ten years on a fully systematic basis, just buying a portfolio of 20 high ranked stocks and rebalancing annually. It’s got a terrific track track record. This year, we thought why not challenge it with a discretionary portfolio, based on similar principles, but incorporating a few more dynamic rules from the research insights we’ve garnered over the years. This portfolio is called the QVM Portfolio and was seeded with the same 20 stocks as the NAPS. After a bid for Alliance Pharma in January, this position was switched into the next highest ranked pharma stock - SDI. So while there is some divergence already, it’s minimal, so we’ll discuss both together.

Q1 Performance

Forgive me for quoting this performance up to the 23rd April rather than the end of quarter, but the numbers are broadly similar. The NAPS are up 7.3% year to date, with the QVM up 6.9%. The switch from Alliance Pharma...