Our Recommended Portfolios: Outlook For 2026
2025 has been a very good year for those investing in our main recommended portfolios and overall, we’ve seen some very strong returns (albeit it hasn’t always been plain sailing!). Of course, we saw the wobble at the start of the year as a result of President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ and his global tariffs. However, risk assets like equities recovered very nicely over the course of the year, and this was reflected in the strong performance of our recommended portfolios.
There was some great underlying performance from some of the portfolio’s individual fund managers, for example in the US Growth asset class. However, the real standout in 2025 was the portfolio’s increased exposure to precious metals. The price of physical gold increased significantly and therefore investments like the Blackrock fund that invests in gold has gone up a lot as well. Whilst there is only a small position in the overall portfolios invested in this fund, it really helped their overall returns.
In a particularly volatile year, our recommended portfolio managers have really tried to be nimble, exploiting some opportunities as and when they presented themselves. For example, an ad hoc switch into increased exposure to traditional fixed income near the beginning of the year, and one more recently when the manager took some profits out of the recently surging precious metals fund and rotated these into alternatives. These switches both worked well and added to the portfolio’s overall returns whilst reducing investment risk.
2026 is going to be another very interesting year and there is likely to be a lot of political noise again. In the run up to the mid-term elections at the end of next year, Trump is certainly going to want the US economy to be looking strong going into those elections. We might see some interesting policies as a result of that which might provide a boost to the equity market.
There are some concerns over high valuations in certain parts of the market. For example, there has been a lot of talk in the investment press about whether we are in an AI bubble, or perhaps whether we are in the process of that bubble forming. When we speak to our recommended portfolio managers about these concerns, it is certainly something that they are monitoring closely and are ready to act if the need arises.
Like through 2025, 2026 is most likely to be about responding and reacting to developments in the market, as and when they occur. Our portfolio managers tell us that it’s very difficult to lay out a plan for the year, given some of the volatility we have seen recently. Ultimately, the things they are concerned about as they go into next year are high valuations, the risk of further inflationary pressure and how central banks respond to that inflationary pressure.
So overall, 2026 will be about being nimble and reacting to some of this noise as it occurs to capture some of the best opportunities and mitigate those risks for investors.
What Now?
Do you have a lump sum to invest? Perhaps you have recently inherited or retired and looking to invest for your future?
Do you have existing investments, perhaps in ISAs and / or pensions, that would benefit from being professionally managed?
Why not get in touch for a free, initial introductory meeting. These are typically conducted in a very gentle way in our homely living-room style office and will allow both you and us to see whether we would like to work with each other going forward.
To book don’t hesitate to email us at office@haroldstephens.co.uk or call 0117 3636 212.