May 2026 Report

International stock markets gained, but the Australian market lagged, presumably in response to the tax changes. The Australian Dollar was little changed moving from USD 0.7179 to USD 0.7185. Gold fell in USD terms. Here is the performance of our benchmarks (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 5.21%

S&P 500: 5.26%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index (forecast): 1.50%

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: 1.34%

Target Portfolio (forecast, depends on HFRI): 2.56%

Australian 60/40 benchmark: 2.92%

We underperformed all our benchmarks by a lot. In Australian Dollar terms we gained 0.44% and in US Dollar terms we gained 0.53%. This barely covers inflation. The SMSF also underperformed gaining 0.43% while Unisuper gained 2.26% and PSS(AP) 2.31%.

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. Gold, futures, and private equity lost money but all other asset classes gained. Hedge funds were the best performer and greatest contributor. 

Why did we underperform the target portfolio? The most important reason is that we had a -0.15% contribution from private equity while the target benchmark had a 1.84% contribution. If the target portfolio had lost 0.15% on private equity instead, it would have returned only 0.57% overall. As we will see below, 3i was a major detractor, and we just don't have consistent wins on our venture portfolio yet. This is the J-curve curse. If and when we do have consistent returns–returns are actually positive already– they'll report with a long time lag too.  

Things that worked well this month:

• Six investments gained AUD 10k or more: Tribeca Global Resources (TGF.AX, 44k), Unisuper (18k), PSS(AP) (14k), Pengana Private Equity (PE1.AX, 13k), Acadian Global Equity Long-Short (13k), and Regal Partners (RPL.AX, 10k). Our industry/public sector super funds were nice diversifiers this month.

What really didn't work:

• Three investments lost AUD 10k or more: L1 Global Long-Short (GLS.AX, 27k), 3i (III.L, 22k), gold (14k).

Our distance from our target allocation very slightly narrowed. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

Almost 70% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity and credit, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

Moominmama receives employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We also make monthly concessional contributions to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. There will still be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II and III. I am receiving monthly pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF totalling AUD 5,150 per month. I got a bit more active in the market, making the following investment and trade moves this month:

• We received a large value of distributions this month. AUD 20k from URF.AX, AUD 24k from Aura VF2, 3k from Aura VF1, and more than AUD 10k including the franking credit from WAM Capital. The first of these largely went to paying our SMSF's tax bill of AUD 16k after the annual accounts were finalized. The Aura payments were a welcome boost to our offset account, which is currently at just below AUD 300k:

• I made three investments (USD 2k each) in startups on Angellist. These were my first investments that were not with the Unpopular Ventures syndicate. Two of them are in the medical/health field.
• I sold 20k shares of Tribeca Global Resources (TGF.AX) around the recent price peak. This reduced our margin loan back towards the level I fixed at a constant interest rate.
• I sold 2k shares of the ASX 200 ETF, IOZ.AX. I think I was just getting bored of this! I used the money to:
• Buy 1,000 shares of ZIM again and 10k shares of Regal Partners (RPL.AX). ZIM has fallen since I sold and continued to fall since I rebought... There seems to be a lot of resistance in the government to approve the takeover by Hapag-Lloyd. On the other hand, businessman Haim Sakal has made a higher bid for the firm, though it doesn't seem to being taken very seriously. Regal just seems very cheap given the growth the firm is achieving. These helped us rebalancing as well.
• I also sold 10k shares of Pengana Private Equity (PE1.AX) as the price now seems to reflect the NAV including the expected value of SpaceX at its upcoming IPO. I bought 5k shares of Regal Investment Fund (RF1.AX) instead as it is trading below NAV.

Here are the income and spending accounts * for this month:

I just realised that I have been treating tax on employer superannuation contributions and tax on SMSF contributions asymmetrically and tax on superannuation earnings asymmetrically with tax on non-superannuation investment returns. I have been deducting contributions tax from contributions for employer super inside the "other income" category but all the tax paid on the SMSF, which includes contributions tax, has been relegated to "tax credit". Similarly, all tax paid on non-super investment returns has been in "Other income" but all tax paid on superannuation earnings is in "tax credit".

I think the solution is to deduct all the tax actually paid by the SMSF from other income, while leaving the tax credits received by the SMSF in "tax credit" obviously, but also all the imputed tax on employer super investment earnings will stay in tax credit because we never actually receive that money. The accounts above employ this new approach. This will give us a better picture of how we are performing relative to the 4% rule.

Other income includes Moominmama's salary and employer superannuation contributions but also the tax paid by the SMSF, which was AUD 16k this month.. It was a low spending month at AUD 6k, which is about the same as we spent in March. This number does not include our mortgage payments, which are regarded here as saving and investment costs. Dissaving amounted to AUD 18k, mainly because of the SMSF tax. This is still within the 4% rule limit of AUD 23k. We gained AUD 30k investing, all of which was in retirement accounts. We received a dividend from WAM Capital in the SMSF with associated franking credits this month. We also paid a lot of tax to the ATO from the SMSF. As a result of all this, net worth rose by AUD 6k to AUD 8.231 million. This is net worth is lower than that reported last month due to a fall in the estimated value of our house, where I use the same value for all months of the year.

* Results are shown separately for retirement and non-retirement accounts as well as housing, which nowadays doesn't have much activity. The grey shaded rows are additional notes. Total investment income is split into investment income before exchange rate moves and the contribution of exchange rates. Other income is non-investment income including salaries, employer superannuation contributions, net tax returns minus superannuation contribution tax and all SMSF tax payments to the ATO. Investment income is shown pre-tax. Tax credits include franking credits on Australian Dividends etc. and imputed tax on industry superannuation returns. These are taken away from investment income to get changes in actual net worth. Inheritances include gifts from relatives. Saving is from non-investment income, transfers, and inheritances. 

April 2026 Report

Markets rebounded this month, but they rebounded a lot less in Australia than in the rest of the world. This was partly because of a strong rebound in the Australian Dollar from USD 0.6880 to USD 0.7179. Gold fell a little in USD terms and quite a lot in AUD terms. Here is the performance of our benchmarks (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 10.21%

S&P 500: 10.49%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index (forecast): 2.71%

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: 2.19%

Target Portfolio (forecast): 1.97%

Australian 60/40 benchmark: 2.44%

In Australian Dollar terms we gained 2.88% and in US Dollar terms we gained 7.35%. So we outperformed all AUD benchmarks and HFRI but underperformed relative to the two USD stock indices. Our SMSF gained 4.62%. Unisuper gained 4.49% and PSS(AP) 2.34%. So, we outperformed one of our superannuation benchmarks.

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. Gold and Australian small cap lost money but all other asset classes gained. Futures were the best performer while hedge funds made the greatest contribution. 

Things that worked well this month:

• Nine investments gained more than AUD 10k: L1 Global Long-Short (GLS.AX, 42k), Unisuper (35k), Australian Dollar Futures (35k), Pershing Square Holdings (PSH.L, 19k), Acadian Global Long-Short (19k), PSS(AP) (15k), Pengana Private Equity (PE1.AX, 15k),  CREF Social Choice (11k), and Hearts and Minds (HM1.AX, 11k).

What really didn't work:

• Only three investments lost money with gold losing 28k.

We moved towards our target allocation. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

Almost 70% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity and credit, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

Moominmama receives employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We also make monthly concessional contributions to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. There will still be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II and III. I am receiving monthly pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF totalling AUD 5,150 per month. I was again less active in the market, making the following investment and trade moves this month:

• I reinvested a distribution at Masterworks and invested USD 2k in another startup at Unpopular Ventures on Angellist. We are no longer subscribing to their rolling fund but will invest a little in promising startups that they syndicate.
• I sold 1,000 shares of PMGOLD.AX (10 ounces) and then bought back in again at a lower price, but not low enough, as the price has fallen more.
• I bought another 10k shares in WAM Alternatives (WMA.AX).

Here are the income and spending accounts * for this month:

Other income includes Moominmama's salary and employer superannuation contributions and totalled AUD 4k as usual. It was a big spending month at AUD 19k due to school fees. This number does not include our mortgage payments, which are regarded here as saving and investment costs. Dissaving amounted to AUD 15k, within the 4% rule limit of AUD 23k. We gained AUD 193k investing, 2/3 of which were was in retirement accounts. They performed better both on the way down and the way up from the March correction than our non-retirement accounts and are now higher than in February. We received lots of dividends with associated franking credits this month. As a result of all this, net worth rose by AUD 162k to AUD 8.309 million. We are about AUD 100k above the beginning of the year, but this is mainly due to the increase in the value of our house.

* Results are shown separately for retirement and non-retirement accounts as well as housing, which nowadays doesn't have much activity. The grey shaded rows are additional notes. Total investment income is split into investment income before exchange rate moves and the contribution of exchange rates. Other income is non-investment income including salaries, employer superannuation contributions, and net tax returns. Investment income is shown pre-tax. Tax credits include franking credits on Australian Dividends and imputed tax on industry superannuation returns and and actual SMSF tax. These are taken away from investment income to get changes in actual net worth. Inheritances include gifts from relatives. Saving is from non-investment income, transfers, and inheritances. 

USVC

AngelList have announced a new mutual fund investing in venture capital called USVC. You can invest as little as USD 500. I have been thinking about investing in this via our SMSF. Previously, I wanted to invest in Unpopular Ventures on the AngelList platform using the SMSF but SuperGuardian, our administrator, said it wasn't allowed because of the partnership structure. Instead, we invested in Moominmama's name. This isn't a partnership, so it should be OK. It seems to be open to non-US investors despite the mutual fund structure. On the other hand, I feel I am too contrarian to be happy investing in all these US AI companies at this stage. At least 80% of the fund will be in US venture. That is why I like Unpopular Ventures because it is truly global. In retrospect I would have done much better with my investments if I had been less contrarian. But it is just this fundamental character trait. So, I try to work with it rather than against it. I feel uncomfortable going with the majority.

February 2026 Report

The Australian Dollar rose from USD 0.6989 to USD 0.7116 meaning that USD investment returns are better than AUD investment returns. Stock markets mostly rose (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 1.31%

S&P 500: -0.76%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index: 1.92%

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: 4.33%

Target Portfolio: 0.16%

Australian 60/40 benchmark: 1.27%

In currency neutral terms we gained 1.31%. But in Australian Dollar terms we lost 0.33% and in US Dollar terms we gained 1.48%. So we beat the USD stock index benchmarks but underperformed the AUD benchmarks and HFRI. Hedge funds are having a good performance patch. It was the first down month for the S&P 500 since April 2025! February is a seasonally negative month for both the S&P 500 and our own portfolio.

The target portfolio has been flat for several months now as the rise in the Australian Dollar and.a fall in venture capital offset gains in other asset classes:

The SMSF underperformed, losing 1.83%. Unisuper  returned 0.92% and PSS(AP) 1.37%. 

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. Performance was very mixed with a huge rate of return for futures. Hedge funds slightly edged futures out in terms of contribution. Gold had the worst rate of return and detracted the most.

Things that worked well this month:

• Four investments made more than AUD 10k: L1 Global Long Short (GLS.AX, 26k), Tribeca Global Resources (TGF.AX, 22k), Australian Dollar Futures (14k), Winton Global Alpha (11k). Eleven investments hit new high profit marks including GLS, TGF, and Winton. For TGF the previous peak was in 2022. Cadence Opportunities hit a new peak, with the previous peak in 2021!

What really didn't work:

• Three investments lost more than AUD 10k: Pershing Square Holdings (PSH.L, 24k), gold (15k), and Regal Investment Fund (RF1.AX, 15k). Because of timing issues, the price of the PMGOLD gold ETF fell, while the price of gold rose in US Dollar terms for the month. This wasn't because of the rise in the Australian Dollar. The USD price of gold when converted into AUD rose from AUD 7,000 to AUD 7,413! Ratherm there was a 9% fall in the USD price of gold on the last day of January. But the ASX closed before that happened.

We moved towards our target allocation. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

 

About 68% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity and credit, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

Moominmama receives employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We also make monthly concessional contributions to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. There will still be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II and III. I am receiving monthly pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF totalling AUD 5,150 per month. I made non-concessional contributions of AUD 30k Unisuper and AUD 20k to our SMSF. I am thinking to max out the total possible contributions before I probably hit the transfer balance cap at the end of this financial year and can't make any further non-concessional contributions. There is a twist that complicates things. The transfer balance cap is expected to be raised by AUD 100k next year. I was very active in the market, making the following investment and trade moves this month:

• I bought 5k shares of Regal Partners (RPL.AX) on a dip.
• I bought 10k shares of Hearts and Minds (HM1.AX) on the same dip in the market. 
• I bought 4k shares of WAM Capital (WAM.AX) to round out our position to 110k. This was funded really from the gain in our Australian Dollar Futures. When futures rise, the cash in your account increases and vice versa...
• I bought 10k more shares of Cadence Opportunities (CDO.AX). 
• I did two profitable trades in gold and used the proceeds to buy 5k shares of Wilson Alternative Assets (WMA.AX). This should help rebalance our portfolio a little towards real assets. Then I did an unprofitable trade in gold...
• I sold 50 shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/B). I'm a bit disappointed that it is below where I bought it in last year's market correction. This helped rebalance our portfolio a little away from US stocks. 
• I sold 1,000 shares of the ASX 200 ETF, IOZ.AX. This helped rebalance our portfolio towards the target portfolio and together with the BRK/B sale fund the following: 
• I bought 2000 shares of ZIM. I was planning on this being a longer term trade, but I ended up getting out after one day!
• So, instead I bought 500 additional shares of Pershing Square Holdings (PSH.L). 
• I sold more than 23k shares of Regal Investment Fund (RF1.AX). The market price was near the NAV now.
• I then bought 350k shares of the US Residential Property Fund, URF.AX. They now say that they will try to sell all property by the end of the year. This should close the gap between NAV and the market price. Risk is that the Australian Dollar rises a lot in the interim reducing NAV. This also helped rebalance the porfolio.
• I also bought just over 10k shares of the Cordish-Dixon Private Equity Fund III (CD3.AX). I liked the recent presentation on fund performance and think it is really undervalued. 
• I invested USD 3,750 in another start up with Unpopular Ventures.
• I made a new investment in 500 shares of the Alerian MLP ETF. This also helped rebalance towards real assets.

Here are the income and spending accounts * for this month:

Other income includes Moominmama's salary, a refund Moominpapa received and employer superannuation contributions. There was a larger than normal transfer into superannuation as I made the non-concessional contributions mentioned above. Spending was almost AUD 30k. This was the highest monthly spend since January 2015 when we bought our house and paid stamp duty! This was a high month due to school fees and a big "professional" expenditure by Moominpapa. As a result dissaving was AUD 23k for the month, which is just at the 4% rule limit. Because we lost AUD 24k investing, net income was AUD -18k. As a result of all this, net worth decreased by AUD 49k to AUD 8.608 million.

* Results are shown separately for retirement and non-retirement accounts as well as housing, which nowadays doesn't have much activity. The grey shaded rows are additional notes. Total investment income is split into investment income before exchange rate moves and the contribution of exchange rates. Other income is non-investment income including salaries, employer superannuation contributions, and net tax returns. Investment income is shown pre-tax. Tax credits include franking credits on Australian Dividends and imputed tax on industry superannuation returns and and actual SMSF tax. These are taken away from investment income to get changes in actual net worth. Inheritances include gifts from relatives. Saving is from non-investment income, transfers, and inheritances. 

More Good Venture Capital News

I recently reported that my investment in the Aura VF2 fund was now in profit. Now, our Angellist investments through Unpopular Ventures have swung into profitability too:

 

There is a 3 month lag in reporting values. We invest in their Rolling Fund as well as individual firms. One of those firms is now reporting that it is worth 9.5x the value I invested at. On the other hand, two companies I invested in have effectively gone to zero. While I am excited to not be losing money any more, our overall IRR on our Angellist investments is only 2.76% so far. 

But this is an AUD 60k bump in value that makes a substantive change to our numbers for 2025. It pushes up our 2025 rate of return to 9.68% in AUD terms or 18.14% in USD terms. That puts us just ahead of the S&P 500 for the year:

The "retirement number" rises to AUD 7.011 million. Total net worth at the end of the year Was AUD 8.252 million, which is comfortably ahead of the base case net worth projection of AUD 8.2 million. Also, the private equity return for the year roses to 9.3% from 4.7%! The annual contribution to total return from private equity was 1.8% instead of 0.9%. Unpopular Ventures returned AUD 40,118 for the year, making it our 8th best investment.

Annual Report 2025: Individual Investments

As promised, here are the individual investment results for 2025 (Australian Dollars):

Other costs and benefits like interest and fees and exchange rate gains and losses are not included here. I also don't go down to the level of the very small individual investments inside the Masterworks, Unpopular Ventures, and Domacom investments boxes.  

I also make no attempt to compute individual rates of return. My goal is to have twice as many winners as losers and to make at least twice as much on winners as I lose on losers. So, position sizing is part of the story. Based on that goal, I had more than enough winners, but only won slightly more on each winner as I lost on each loser. Without the two worst losers, I only lost $9.9k per loser. In the long term, my winning positions have gained more than five times as much as losing positions have lost. Of course, both Bitcoin and Defi Technologies gained more in the previous year than they lost in 2025. In the long run, these were winning investments.

Gold was the top performer this year, after coming in second last year. It was followed by two listed hedge funds and then the Aura Venture Capital Fund 2. Next came our two employer superannuation funds, each of which is 8-12% of our portfolio. The diversified Regal Investment Fund put in a good showing at 7th position. WAM Capital is a new investment I made during the April Tariff Tantrum. Australian Dollar Futures are paying off this year after being the worst performer last year. Finally in the top 10, CREF Social Choice is a balanced fund in my US retirement account (403b).

December 2025 Report

December was the first post-retirement month. I am changing the layout of these reports to remove investment performance over the last five years and add in the income and spending report I dropped back in 2018. This is because I have a new focus on making sure spending stays within our budget, whereas it is hard to change investment performance over a five year period on a monthly basis. I will report on longer term investment performance in the annual review as usual.

In December, the Australian Dollar rose from USD 0.6550 to USD 0.6674 meaning that USD investment returns are better than AUD investment returns. We had a good month in terms of investment return. Stock markets were slightly up with a lot of intramonth volatility (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 1.07%

S&P 500: 0.06%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index: 0.26% (forecast)

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: 1.36%

Target Portfolio: -0.19% (forecast - depends on HFRI result)

Australian 60/40 benchmark: 0.22%

We gained 1.28% in Australian Dollar terms or 3.28% in US Dollar terms. So we outperformed all benchmarks apart from the ASX 200, which we got fairly close to.  These returns are preliminary, as we won't get results from Aura Venture for more than a month, and Angellist report with a three month lag. I was curious about how much I end up revising my monthly performance figures when all the data is available. Here are the results for the last year:

"Original" is the rate of return reported in this blog and "Current" is my current estimate. In the last year, on average I overestimated the rate of return initially. On the other hand, I initially underestimated the return for last December but as you can see I have already trimmed this December's number a little.

The SMSF again outperformed, returning 0.62% beating Unisuper (0.37%) and PSS(AP) (0.40%). 

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. Only US stocks lost money. Futures had the highest rate of return with Australian Dollar Futures contributing the most. Hedge funds made the largest overall contribution.

Things that worked well this month:

• As mentioned above, most hedge funds did well with Tribeca Global Resources (TGF.AX) gaining AUD 42k and Regal Investment Fund (RF1.AX) 17k. Gold, 3i (III.L), and Cadence Opportunities (CDO.AX) all gained between AUD 9 and 10k.

What really didn't work:

• Only five investments lost money and no investment lost more than AUD 10k.

We moved towards our target allocation. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

About 65% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

Moominmama receives employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We also make monthly concessional contributions to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. I made the last USD 10k contribution to the Unpopular Ventures Rolling Fund this month. There will still be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II and III. I am receiving monthly TTR pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF. I will decide how much to recontribute to superannuation later in the financial year. 

This was a quieter month in terms of transactions:

• I sold 5k WAM Capital (WAM.AX) shares.
• I bought net 1k shares of WCM Global Quality (WCMQ.AX). 
• I sold 250 Perth Mint Gold ETF (PMGOLD.AX) shares. 
• I sold all our position in WAM Strategic Value (WAR.AX, 100k shares) in order to fund the 1:1 entitlement offer for the L1 Global Long Short Fund (GLS.AX, formerly Platinum Capital, 85k new shares). 

Here are the income and spending accounts for this month:

Results are shown separately for retirement and non-retirement accounts as well as housing, which nowadays doesn't have much activity. The grey lines are additional notes. Total investment income is split into investment income before exchange rate moves and the contribution of exchange rates. Other income is non-investment income including salaries, employer superannuation contributions, and net tax returns. Investment income is shown pre-tax. Tax credits include franking credits on Australian Dividends and imputed tax on superannuation returns. These are taken away from investment income to get changes in actual net worth. Inheritances include gifts from relatives. Saving is from non-investment income, transfers, and inheritances.

This month, salary hit a record number as I received the redundancy payment of more than AUD 1/4 million. Spending was fairly average at AUD 12k. There was a larger than normal transfer out of superannuation as I made excess concessional superannuation contributions in the previous tax year, which I withdrew from Unisuper. We received a cash gift from Muminmama's father (counted as inheritance). As a result of all this, net worth increased by AUD 347k, almost all of it in non-retirement accounts. Now, I will have to decide how much to contribute to superannuation. I want to hit the goal of transferring AUD 2 million to a tax free pension account. I also want to max out the concessional contribution cap of AUD 30k for this year to help reduce my taxes, which will be very high because of the redundancy payment. The payment itself has low taxes but it pushes most of the rest of my income into the top tax bracket.

To keep things simple, I will use net worth at the end of this month as the "retirement number". Net worth at the end of December not including our house is AUD 6.875 million. Using the 4% rule means we could dissave AUD 275k per annum. Our spending is a lot below that. Total net worth is AUD 8.112 million.

November 2025 Report

In November, the Australian Dollar rose very slightly from USD 0.6542 to USD 0.6550 meaning that USD investment returns are slightly better than AUD investment returns. Stock markets were flat or fell with a lot of intramonth volatility (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 0.02%

S&P 500: 0.25%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index: 0.01% (forecast)

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: -2.51%

Target Portfolio: -0.34% (forecast - depends on HFRI result)

Australian 60/40 benchmark: -0.42%

We lost 1.93% in Australian Dollar terms or 1.88% in US Dollar terms. So the only benchmark we beat was the ASX 200. Our performance was hit by the crash in the price of 3i (see below). After underperforming last month, the SMSF returned 0.16% beating Unisuper (-1.06%) and PSS(AP) (-0.61%).

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. Returns were very mixed. Gold had the largest gain, while rest of the world stocks had the lowest. Gold made the greatest positive contribution and private equity the most negative contribution.

Things that worked well this month:

• Two investments gained more than AUD 10k: Gold (AUD 38k), Berkshire Hathaway (11k).

What really didn't work:

• Four investments lost more than AUD 10k: 3i (-), bitcoin (-28k), Defi Technologies (-20k), and Dash/IPS (-17k). 3i crashed after saying sales growth recently was soft in Action's French market. A more than 25% fall in the share price seems to be an irrational response. The actual earnings report was great. I bought more, but as usual was too early. I got out of all crypto investments (see below). IPS didn't do as well as hoped and so the "earn out" component of the takeover was less than expected.

Here are the investment performance statistics for the last five years:

The top three lines give our performance in USD and AUD terms, while the last three lines give the same statistics for four benchmarks. The middle block gives our performance relative to the indices. 

Our alpha relative to the ASX200 is 2.9% with a beta of only 0.51. We have much lower volatility, resulting in a information ratio of 1.30 vs. 0.99. We capture much less of the downside moves than the upside moves in the market. We also have very good performance relative to the Vanguard 60/40 portfolio with similar volatility but 3.5% p.a. more return. We captured 104% of the upside of this portfolio but only 69% of the downside. But as we optimize for Australian Dollar performance, our USD statistics are much worse. We do beat the HFRI hedge fund index in terms of return, but at the expense of far higher volatility. Our USD volatility is at least less than that of the MSCI index, but our return is almost five percentage points lower!

We moved a bit away our target allocation due to investments and investment performance. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

About 65% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

We receive employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We make monthly concessional contributions to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. There is one remaining USD 10k contribution to make to the Unpopular Ventures Rolling Fund and there will be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II and III. I am now receiving TTR (soon to be retirement) pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF and contributing more than the total of these back to my superannuation accounts for the remainder of this financial year. 

I was quite busy making the following additional moves this month:

• I bought 700 shares of 3i (III.L) after the price crashed. I still believe in the company.
• I sold our entire bitcoin position across three accounts. This was just over one bitcoin's worth.
• I also sold our ether position. 
• I sold our Defi Technologies (DEFT) position (15k shares).
• I bought 36k WAM Capital (WAM.AX) shares.
• I bought 5k Regal Partners (RPL.AX) shares.
• I sold 1k WCM Global Quality (WCMQ.AX) shares.
• I sold 500 Pershing Square Holdings (PSH.L) shares.
• I bought 30k Cadence Opportunities (CDO.AX) shares.
• I bought 1k Putnam BDC (PBDC) shares.
• I sold 750 PMGOLD.AX gold ETF shares.
• I made a non-concessional contribution of AUD 40k to Unisuper.
• I bought 2k Hearts and Minds (HM1.AX) shares. 

On the whole it is a shift from speculative investments to income investments, though the extra 3i shares are speculative. The last day of the month was my retirement date. This month's net worth (not including our house) together with the redundancy payment I should get this week constitutes our "retirement number". It should be approximately AUD 6.8 million. Using the 4% rule means we could spend AUD 272k per annum. Our spending is a lot below that. Total net worth at the end of November is at AUD 7.78 million.

October 2025 Report

In October, the Australian Dollar fell from USD 0.6613 to USD 0.6542 meaning that USD investment returns are worse than AUD investment returns. Stock markets continued to rise (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 2.26%

S&P 500: 2.34%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index: 0.55% (forecast)

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: 0.39%

Target Portfolio: 1.36% (forecast - depends on HFRI result)

Australian 60/40 benchmark: 1.55%

We gained 1.78% in Australian Dollar terms or 0.69% in US Dollar terms. So we beat three of the benchmarks.

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. Hedge funds had the highest rate of return and the greatest contribution to total return.

Things that worked well this month:

• Seven investments gained more than AUD 10k: Gold (32k), 3i (24k), Tribeca Global Resources (24k), Pershing Square Holdings (23k), Platinum Capital (12k), PSS(AP) (11k), and Domacom (10k). Domacom has not been relisted on the ASX but has issued shares in private placements at 14 cents per share.

What really didn't work:

• No investment lost more than AUD 10k.

Here are the investment performance statistics for the last five years:

The top three lines give our performance in USD and AUD terms, while the last three lines give the same statistics for four benchmarks. The middle block gives our performance relative to the indices. 

Our alpha relative to the ASX200 is 3.0% with a beta of only 0.48. We have much lower volatility, resulting in a information ratio of 1.47 vs. 1.17. We capture much less of the downside moves than the upside moves in the market. We also have very good performance relative to the Vanguard 60/40 portfolio with the same volatility but 3.5% p.a. more return. We captured 102% of the upside of this portfolio but only 62% of the downside. But as we optimize for Australian Dollar performance, our USD statistics are much worse. We do beat the HFRI hedge fund index in terms of return, but at the expense of far higher volatility. Our USD volatility is at least less than that of the MSCI index, but our return is more than five percentage points lower!

We moved a bit away our target allocation due to investments and investment performance. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

About 65% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

We receive employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We make monthly concessional contributions to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. We contribute USD 10k each quarter to the Unpopular Ventures Rolling Fund and less frequently there will be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II. I am now receiving TTR pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF and contributing more than the total of these back to my superannuation accounts. During the month I worked on finalizing my redundancy and renewing my wholesale investor certification.

I was quite busy making the following additional moves this month:

•  I made a AUD 75k investment in Aura Group.
• I bought 900 IBTC.AX bitcoin ETF shares.
• I bought 100 QETH.AX ether ETF shares. 
• I sold 6,000 WAM Capital (WAM.AX) shares.
• I bought 9,312 MCP Income Opportunities private credit shares (MOT.AX).
• I bought 5,000 Regal Investment Fund (RF1.AX) shares.
• I sold 19,174 Pengana Private Equity (PE1.AX) shares. 
• I sold 5,000 Regal Partners (RPL.AX) shares.
• I bought 5,445 Cadence Opportunities (CDO.AX) shares.
• I bought 20,000 WAM Alternative Assets (WMA.AX) shares.
• I sold 250 gold ETF (PMGOLD.AX) shares.
• I sold 2,000 Tribeca Global Resources (TGF.AX) shares. 
• I sold 1,000 WCM Quality (WCMQ.AX) shares. 

Wholesale Investor Certification

As part of participating in the Aura Group capital raise, I had to get a new wholesale investor certificate. You have to do this every 2 years to remain current. There are two main ways to qualify: Show you have more than AUD 250k in income per year in the last two years or show you have more than AUD 2.5 million in net worth. You need an accountant to certify this. The test is on an individual not household basis. I am using the net worth approach.

I was certified in 2020, but when I tried to renew in 2022, the accountant I used said I didn't qualify, as she wouldn't count my superannuation including my SMSF towards the amount as I was under 60. This didn't stop me from continuing to meet capital calls for my existing Australian venture capital investments. 

Now I meet the required level with or without superannuation. I also argued that I am receiving a TTR pension from each of my superannuation accounts and am over 60 and about to retire. Anyway, I qualified. It cost AUD 550. 

It is much easier to qualify as an accredited investor in the US. You only need USD 1 million net worth and you don't need an accountant to prove it, so it is free. A couple can qualify with just USD 1 million between them. However, primary residences are excluded, which is not the case in Australia. Moominmama qualifies as an accredited investor for our investments via Angellist and the Unpopular Ventures syndicate. 

September 2025 Report

In September, the Australian Dollar rose from USD 0.6540 to USD 0.6613 meaning that USD investment returns are better than AUD investment returns. International stock markets rose yet again, though the Australian market was down (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 3.66%

S&P 500: 3.65%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index: 0.83% (forecast)

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: -0.52%

Target Portfolio: 2.70% (forecast - depends on HFRI result)

Australian 60/40 benchmark: 0.83%

We gained 3.63% in Australian Dollar terms or 4.79% in US Dollar terms. So we beat all benchmarks!

Our SMSF returned 3.42% beating both Unisuper (0.60%) and PSS(AP) (0.81%).

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. All asset classes gained. Gold had the greatest return, but hedge funds made the largest contribution to total returns.

Things that worked well this month:

• The following investments gained more than AUD 10k: Gold (AUD 86k), Pershing Square Holdings (PSH.L, 35k), Tribeca Global Resources (TGF.AX, 31k), Regal Investment Fund (RF1.AX, 28k), WAM Capital (WAM.AX, 16k), Platinum Capital (PMC.AX, 11k).

What really didn't work:

• No investment lost more than AUD 10k.

Here are the investment performance statistics for the last five years:

The top three lines give our performance in USD and AUD terms, while the last three lines give the same statistics for four benchmarks. The middle block gives our performance relative to the indices. 

Our alpha relative to the ASX200 is 3.0% with a beta of only 0.49. We have much lower volatility, resulting in a information ratio of 1.49 vs. 1.19. We capture much less of the downside moves than the upside moves in the market. We also have very good performance relative to the Vanguard 60/40 portfolio with the same volatility but 4% p.a. more return. We captured 100% of the upside of this portfolio but only 60% of the downside. But as we optimize for Australian Dollar performance, our USD statistics are much worse. We do beat the HFRI hedge fund index in terms of return, but at the expense of far higher volatility. Our USD volatility is at least less than that of the MSCI index, but our return is more than four percentage points lower.

We moved a little bit away our target allocation. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

About 65% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

We receive employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We make monthly concessional contributions to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. We contribute USD 10k each quarter to the Unpopular Ventures Rolling Fund and less frequently there will be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II. I am now receiving TTR pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF and contributing more than the total of these back to my superannuation accounts. I made the following additional moves this month:

• I bought 15k WAM Strategic Value (WAR.AX).
• I bought 15k shares of Defi technologies (DEFT.AX), a stock I previously held until April. 
• I bought 4,555 shares of Cadence Opportunities (CDO.AX). 
• I did a trade in gold, buying 500 PMGOLD shares and then selling 750.
• bought 375 Metrics Income Opportunities shares (MOT.AX).

August 2025 Report

In August, the Australian Dollar rose from USD 0.6433 to USD 0.6540 meaning that USD investment returns are better than AUD investment returns. It was our second highest spending (in nominal terms, January 2015 was the highest) month ever at AUD 27k. School fees and airfares booking coincided. Stock markets rose again (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 2.51%

S&P 500: 2.03%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index: 0.54% (forecast)

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: 3.30%

Target Portfolio: 0.86% (forecast - depends on HFRI result)

Australian 60/40 benchmark: 1.37%

We gained 1.07% in Australian Dollar terms or 2.76% in US Dollar terms. So we beat all the US Dollar benchmarks but under-performed relative to two of the Australian Dollar benchmarks.

Our SMSF returned 1.31% beating Unisuper (0.75%) but not PSS(AP) (1.35%).

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. All asset classes apart from private equity had positive returns. US stocks had the greatest return and hedge funds made the largest contribution to total return.

Things that worked well this month:

• The following investments gained more than AUD 10k: Gold (16k), Tribeca Global Resources (16k), Berkshire Hathaway (10k).

What really didn't work:

• Bitcoin lost AUD 14k and 3i 10k.

Here are the investment performance statistics for the last five years:

The top three lines give our performance in USD and AUD terms, while the last three lines give the same statistics for four benchmarks. The middle block gives our performance relative to the indices. 

Our alpha relative to the ASX200 is 2.9% with a beta of only 0.48. We still have much lower volatility, resulting in a information ratio of 1.42 vs. 1.12. We capture much less of the downside moves than the upside moves in the market. We also have very good performance relative to the Vanguard 60/40 portfolio with the same volatility but 4% p.a. more return. We captured 100% of the upside of this portfolio but only 60% of the downside. But as we optimize for Australian Dollar performance, our USD statistics are much worse. We do beat the HFRI hedge fund index in terms of return, but at the expense of far higher volatility. Our USD volatility is at least less than that of the MSCI index, but our return is more than four percentage points lower.

We moved a little bit away our target allocation. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

About 65% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

We receive employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We make monthly concessional contributions to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. We contribute USD 10k each quarter to the Unpopular Ventures Rolling Fund and less frequently there will be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II. I am now receiving TTR pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF and contributing more than the total of these back to my superannuation accounts. I made the following additional moves this month:

• I bought 1,100 shares of the IBTC.AX bitcoin ETF. I also did a small unprofitable bitcoin futures trade.
• I bought 500 shares of the QETH.AX ethereum ETF.
• I sold 10k shares of WAM Capital (WAM.AX).
• I bought 2k shares of Regal Investment Fund (RF1.AX).
• I bought 85k shares of Platinum Capital (PMC.AX).
• I sold 73k shares of Cadence Opportunities (CDO.AX).

June 2025 Report

I waited for all investment returns for the financial year to be in before posting this report, though, in the end, it didn't make much difference. In June, the Australian Dollar rose from USD 0.6431 to USD 0.6559 meaning that USD investment returns are better than AUD investment returns. Stock markets rose (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 4.53%

S&P 500: 5.09%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index: 2.36%

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: 1.47%

Target Portfolio: 1.95%

Australian 60/40 benchmark: 1.79%

We gained 0.68% in Australian Dollar terms or gained 2.68% in US Dollar terms. So the only benchmark we beat was the HFRI. We under-performed the target portfolio because our returns for private equity and US stocks were a lot below the benchmark returns.

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. All asset classes but gold and Australian small cap had positive returns with the strongest rate of return and the largest contribution from Australian large cap.

Things that worked well this month:

• More than AUD 10k gain: Unisuper (19k), Regal Investment Fund (RF1.AX, 12k), Australian Dollar Futures (10k). Also at all time high profits:  PSS(AP) (9k for the month), CREF Social Choice (7k), Acadian (6k), WCM Global (WCMQ.AX, 2k), CFS Imputation (2k).

What really didn't work:

• Gold (-14k). At all time low profits: WAM Capital (WAM.AX, -1k).

Here are the investment performance statistics for the last five years:

The top three lines give our performance in USD and AUD terms, while the last three lines give the same statistics for four benchmarks. This month, we have added the Vanguard 60/40 ETF portfolio to the set of benchmarks. The middle block gives our performance relative to the indices. 

These are now measured from the end of June 2020. Our alpha relative to the ASX200 fell to 3.0% with a beta of only 0.48. We still have much lower volatility, resulting in a information ratio of 1.41 vs. 1.09. We capture much less of the downside moves than the upside moves in the market. We also have very good performance relative to the Vanguard 60/40 portfolio with the same volatility but almost 4% p.a. more return. But as we optimize for Australian Dollar performance, our USD statistics are much worse. We do beat the HFRI hedge fund index in terms of return, but at the expense of much higher volatility. Our USD volatility is at least less than that of the MSCI index, but our return is more than four percentage points lower.

We moved towards our target allocation as I again tweaked the allocation. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

About 65% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

We receive employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We make an annual concessional contribution to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. We contribute USD 10k each quarter to the Unpopular Ventures Rolling Fund and less frequently there will be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II. I am now receiving TTR pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF and contributing more than the total of these back to my superannuation accounts. (around AUD 4k net contribution per month). I made the following additional moves this month:

• Closed investments in Generation Global and Aspect Diversified Futures and switched the money to the Acadian Global Long Short Fund.
• Invested USD 2,500 in a syndicated start up at Unpopular Ventures. In my reporting, all these small investments are reported together with the UV Rolling Fund. Similarly, individual paintings I invested in at Masterworks are all reported together, as are individual property investments at Domacom.
• Sold 1,000 shares of James Hardie (JHX.AX) closing this trade for about an AUD 600 loss.
• Bought 500 shares of the gold ETF (PMGOLD.AX). 
• Net sold 3,250 shares of WCM Global Quality (WCMQ.AX). 
• Bought AUD 45k of the First Sentier Imputation Fund. 

July 2025 Report

In June, the Australian Dollar fell from USD 0.6559 to USD 0.6433 meaning that USD investment returns are worse than AUD investment returns. Stock markets rose (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 1.38%

S&P 500: 2.24%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index: 0.27% (forecast)

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: 2.36%

Target Portfolio: 1.82% (forecast - depends on HFRI result)

Australian 60/40 benchmark: 1.90%

We gained 3.38% in Australian Dollar terms or 1.38% in US Dollar terms. So the only benchmark we didn't beat was the S&P 500. It seemed that some stocks that were beaten down at the end of the last Australian financial year rebounded strongly. A good example is Regal Partners (RPL.AX), which gained 35%. Maybe a classic case of selling for tax losses. In absolute Australian Dollar terms it was our fourth best month ever gaining AUD 203k. November 2024 was the best ever month with a gain of AUD 335k followed by January 2025 (280k) and March 2024 (229k).

Our SMSF returned 4.59% beating Unisuper (1.67%) and PSS(AP) (2.08%).  This was a welcome change after five months of under-performance.

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. All asset classes had positive returns. Australian small cap had the greatest return and hedge funds made the largest contribution to total return.

Things that worked well this month:

• Ten investments gained more than AUD 10k: Pershing Square Holdings (PSH.L 40k), Regal Partners (RPL.AX, 22k – RPL's best month so far for me), Regal Investment Fund (RF1.AX, 22k), Pengana Private Equity (PE1.AX, 15k), Bitcoin (15k), Unisuper (12k), Gold (12k), WAM Capital (WAM.AX, 12k), PSS(AP) (11k), and WAM Alternatives (11k).

What really didn't work:

• Australian Dollar Futures lost AUD 12k. (-14k).

Here are the investment performance statistics for the last five years:

The top three lines give our performance in USD and AUD terms, while the last three lines give the same statistics for four benchmarks. This month, we have added the Vanguard 60/40 ETF portfolio to the set of benchmarks. The middle block gives our performance relative to the indices. 

Our alpha relative to the ASX200 is 3.2% with a beta of only 0.49. We still have much lower volatility, resulting in a information ratio of 1.46 vs. 1.12. We capture much less of the downside moves than the upside moves in the market. We also have very good performance relative to the Vanguard 60/40 portfolio with the same volatility but 4% p.a. more return. We captured 100% of the upside of this portfolio but only 60% of the downside. But as we optimize for Australian Dollar performance, our USD statistics are much worse. We do beat the HFRI hedge fund index in terms of return, but at the expense of far higher volatility. Our USD volatility is at least less than that of the MSCI index, but our return is more than four percentage points lower.

We moved a little bit away our target allocation. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

About 65% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

We receive employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We make monthly concessional contributions to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. We contribute USD 10k each quarter to the Unpopular Ventures Rolling Fund and less frequently there will be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II. I am now receiving TTR pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF and contributing more than the total of these back to my superannuation accounts. I made the following additional moves this month:

• Made a USD 7,500 investment in African start-up Yassir. In my reporting, all these small investments are reported together with the UV Rolling Fund. Similarly, individual paintings I invested in at Masterworks are all reported together and different property investments at Assetora (formerly Domacom) are wrapped together.
• Bought 400 more shares of the Monochrome bitcoin ETF (IBTC.AX). 
• Bought 2,000 more shares of WCM Global Quality (WCMQ.AX). 

May 2025 Report

In May, the Australian Dollar rose from USD 0.6392 to USD 0.6431 meaning that USD investment returns are a bit better than AUD investment returns. Stock markets rose (total returns including dividends):

US Dollar Indices

MSCI World Index (gross): 5.81%

S&P 500: 6.29%

HFRI Hedge Fund Index: 1.30% (forecast)

Australian Dollar Benchmarks

ASX 200: 4.38%

Target Portfolio: 3.70% (forecast - depends on HFRI result)

Australian 60/40 benchmark: 3.17%

We gained 2.27% in Australian Dollar terms or gained 2.90% in US Dollar terms. So the only benchmark we are expected to beat is the HFRI. We underperformed the target portfolio because of the very high private equity returns of 14% for venture and 11% for buyout that fed into it. By comparison we earned 0.89% on our private equity investments.

Here is a report on the performance of investments by asset class:

The asset class returns are in currency neutral terms as the rate of return on gross assets and do not include investment expenses such as margin interest, and so the total differs from the Australian Dollar returns on net assets mentioned above. All asset classes but gold had positive returns with the strongest returns from Australian small cap and the largest contribution from hedge funds, mainly due to a rebound in Pershing Square Holdings.

Things that worked well this month:

• Six investments gained more than AUD 10k: Pershing Square Holdings (PSH.L, 37k), Unisuper (23k), PSS(AP) (15k), Regal Partners (RPL.AX, 14k), WCM Global (WCMQ.AX, 12k), and Bitcoin (12k).

What really didn't work:

• Regal Investment Fund (RF1.AX) lost AUD 10k.

Here are the investment performance statistics for the last five years:

The top three lines give our performance in USD and AUD terms, while the last three lines give the same statistics for four benchmarks. This month, we have added the Vanguard 60/40 ETF portfolio to the set of benchmarks. The middle block gives our performance relative to the indices. 

These are now measured from the end of May 2020. Our alpha relative to the ASX200 fell to 3.1% with a beta of only 0.48. We still have much lower volatility, resulting in a information ratio of 1.43 vs. 1.11. We capture much less of the downside moves than the upside moves in the market. We also have very good performance relative to the Vanguard 60/40 portfolio with the same volatility but 4% p.a. more return. But as we optimize for Australian Dollar performance, our USD statistics are much worse. We do beat the HFRI hedge fund index in terms of return, but at the expense of much higher volatility. Our USD volatility is at least less than that of the MSCI index, but our return is more than three percentage points lower.

We moved strongly towards our target allocation as we completed redeployment of cash from the sales in April. Our actual allocation currently looks like this:

About 70% of our portfolio is in what are often considered to be alternative assets: real estate, art, hedge funds, private equity, gold, and futures. A lot of these are listed investments or investments with daily liquidity, so our portfolio is not as illiquid as you might think.

We receive employer superannuation contributions every two weeks. We make an annual concessional contribution to Moominmama's superannuation to reach the annual cap on contributions. We contribute USD 10k each quarter to the Unpopular Ventures Rolling Fund and less frequently there will be capital calls from Aura Venture Fund II. I am now receiving TTR pension payments from both Unisuper and our SMSF and contributing more than the total of these back to my superannuation accounts. (around AUD 4k net contribution per month). It was another busy month. I made the following additional moves this month:

• I made a UK pension contribution for the 2024-25 financial year.
• I bought 200 shares of Berkshire Hathaway B (BRK/B). I think Greg Abel may find better things to do with the cash pile than Buffett did and, as he is an operations guy, rationalize some of the existing subsidiaries.
• I bought 40k shares of a Metrics private credit LIT (MOT.AX). The idea is that this will fund TTR pension payouts next financial year. It is trading about 7% below NAV so has some margin of safety.
• I sold 1,000 shares of the gold ETF PMGOLD.AX. We hold 13k shares now.
  
• I bought net 2.5k more shares of an ASX200 ETF (IOZ.AX). Yes, I'm getting more comfortable with passive investing for the long equity portion of our portfolio. We now have 3k shares.
  
• I bought 2,000 more shares of the WCM Global Quality managed ETF (WCMQ.AX). We now have 13k shares.
• I bought 10k more shares of the Pengana private equity LIT (PE1.AX). We now have 87k shares.
• I bought net 60k more shares of the WAM Capital LIC (WAM.AX). We now have 100k shares.
• I bought 1,175 more shares of a bitcoin ETF (IBTC.AX). We now have 8k shares. Roughly 0.8 BTC.
• I bought 300 more shares of 3i (III.L) after it sold off on what looks like a great earnings report. Earnings on stated NAV were 25% up 25% on the previous year. It trades way above NAV, but that is because NAV is stated pretty conservatively I think. We now have 3,800 shares.
• I bought 500 more shares of Pershing Square Holdings (PSH.L). Their reduction of their position in Universal Music, increase in positions in tech stocks, and possibility of strong performance for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together with the price being way below NAV, encouraged me to add to the position. We now have 5,500 shares.