2025 In Review - Winners And Losers Across The StockRank Spectrum

Fri 5:26pm by Edward Croft

53 comments 2906 reads

There’s no better way to close out for Christmas than with a review of the year. We can admire the stocks that doubled, rue the ones that halved, and regret just how close we came to buying that one stock that could have made all the difference.

So let’s repeat what we did this time last year, and dig into the data, look at the winners and losers across the StockRank spectrum, and cut ourselves a bit of slack. Investing is joy, regret and farce rolled into one. A tragedy and a comedy - with the endless promise that next year, just maybe, we’ll do a little better.

The backdrop - a stronger market than it felt

2025 seemed like a good year - but it didn’t feel like that for everyone.

At the time of writing, the FTSE 100 Index (FTSE:UKX) has risen around 16% year to date, with the FTSE All Share Index (FTSE:ASX) close behind. But small caps have lagged badly.

The FTSE Smallcap Index (FTSE:SMC) rose just 7%, while the FTSE AIM All Share Index (FTSE:AXX) has managed about 6%. This really matters, because most private investors like us invest in small caps.

Across all UK shares in my database - around 1,260 stocks - the median price return in 2025 was zero. Restrict the universe to shares above a £10m market cap (983 stocks), and the median return barely improves, at 0.27%, with a mean of about 5.8%.

In other words, the typical stock - and probably the typical private investor portfolio - earned around 5%. Ignore the indices - that’s your real benchmark.

The StockRanks did their job - again

90+ StockRanks delivered a clear advantage.

Shares with a StockRank of 90 or more returned around 21% on average in 2025. That’s a substantial premium in a year when the gap between good and bad narrowed.

Unlike the long term chart, which shows a smooth progression from low rank performance up to high rank performance, it was a little more uneven. Nonetheless, 90+ was the place to be.

What’s more, in the 90+ bucket, you had roughly a 68% chance of picking a winner. A double whammy of the best odds and the best returns.

When winners worked, they worked well.…

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Rusty2

Tue 10:03pm

Ed, you say Value and Momentum were the top performers but if you look at the top 25 QM stocks, they were the best performing, slightly ahead of VM stocks.

homosap

Tue 10:05pm

I tend not to obsess over percentage increases and rely on Interactive Investors performance data for my ISA performance which they suggest has come in at a trailing return of 43.87% over the year. It suggests my 5 year annualised performance has been 23.51% per annum. I am not sure how they calculate these %ages and how accurate they are.

Something over 50% of my holdings have been in PHGP, ABBN, GAW, VLX, IGG, SLP and SNWS all of which I have held over a number of years although I have trimmed or expanded them slightly at times. Otherwise I have dipped in and out of a dozen or so smaller holdings which this year have included IPF, RFX and SRB. I sold Saga too early. Currently I am holding about 30% cash so have probably left a bit of the recent market rise on the table.

I have to say that the detailed analysis provided by Stockopedia has been invaluable when it comes to selecting shares outside my current core holdings. Many thanks for all your hard work and all best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

kuronagi

Tue 10:15pm

And your point Is? We were discussing performance in 2025. Not historic performance

Edward Croft

Tue 10:20pm

VM and QM often battle it out. But I have a preference for value and momentum. Due to the long-term returns, but also a lot of cross-asset backing as a fairly proven pair of uncorrelated return drivers. See this ancient blog post.

VM has also outperformed in our screen tracking since the start.

1MCF

Tue 11:05pm

Great article, thanks Ed. My NAPS portfolio is up 43% YTD. It struggled to get going during Q1, but came out fighting after the Trump tumble in April.

chris2021

7:38am

"In other words, the typical stock - and probably the typical private investor portfolio - earned around 5%. Ignore the indices - that’s your real benchmark."

An excellent example of the type of statement which more than justifies my subscription. In hindsight, is so blindingly obvious and yet had never occurred to me, Thanks!

Michael_P

8:07am

There's no need to be rude. Your post referred to 2004.

8:30am

I was talking about this year. I prefer QM stocks. If you look at the top QM and VM, l find the QM far more attractive, l do hold a number of them. About 50% of the top VM are Financials, QM have a more even balance.

9:15am

My apologies. There was a typo in my message. I meant end 2024 not 2004. So I calculate the 2025 rise in the FTSE 100 as about 21% or about 25% if dividends are included. This is much higher than Edward Croft’s figure of 16%

Clive44

9:30am

Hi Ed. Thank you and the Stockopedia team for all your excellent work over 2025. You've certainly helped my portfolios and made me a more focussed and rational investor.

Over 2025 my smaller ISA of riskier stocks made 19.3%. I'm very happy with this result but even happier with my SIPP which comprises more big caps and less riskier ones. This year I have been much more disciplined on stock picking relying heavily on Stocko Quality and Momentum scores before making the leap. It's up 25.3%.

Having been previously burned, I stayed away from miners and gold. This cost me.

My big failing is knowing when to sell. Either loosing confidence and taking profit too early (on the premise that any profit is a good profit), or hanging on too long when a 'favoured' stock starts declining (it's just a glitch and it'll soon recover).

I'm trying to formulate a selling strategy based on Ichimoku and declining Stock Ranks. Let's see how that fares in 2026.

Best wishes to you and the Stockopedia team and all subscribers for a great Christmas break and a happy, prosperous and, most importantly healthy, New Year.

Clive

J Fox

10:09am

Thanks, Ed. Really interesting! I'm expecting value (especially growth-adjusted) to outperform in 2026

10:10am

No problem. OK, that makes, yes I think you are right, at the time of writing the FTSE is up over 20% YTD. It has been a great year for the FTSE, and hopefully more to come.

Merry Christmas to you and all!

Paul Walton

11:00am

Thanks Ed for you r articles and editorial content, Stockopedia as a whole is starting to transform my returns.

At the moment we hold mainly cash in our ISA's. In my SIPP I trade individual stocks and have achieved a 14% return which I'm delighted with. However my wife's SIPP has returned 29% by only trading etf's, one in particular iShares Gold Producers UCITS ETF USD (Acc) (LON:SPGP) produced most of the return. Hopefully this will continue into the next year with the support of your team and contributions from subscribers.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year

Gussmith01

11:16am

Hi Homosap, how do you get that analysis of your ISA from Interactive Investors? Thanks.

MattH

11:47am

A poor year for me, 5%. My average over the last 12 years is 19% and a CAGR of 14.9%, so this year has been a rubbish underperformance.

My main mistake was to try and be too clever earlier in the year and timing the market around the tariff carnage. I ended up selling some things low and buying back higher.

Another mistake which I need to work on is buying things when they are too extended. Breakouts are all well and good, but not all are created equal.

Finally, I just think there is an element of luck in short term returns. And some years I have definitely had it but not this year. Nothing has been a disaster but I haven't quite managed to catch the big waves. It has often felt like my portfolio is stuck in the mud, despite individually everything looking perfectly OK.

Everything is a learning process, onwards and upwards for next year. I would be screwed without Stockopedia so thanks to all the team.

P.s Can we have the various ranks available as an overlay or indicator in the charts please? And a word highlight feature in the RNS view? Thank you, Santa,

Brilliant Leader

12:17pm

You must be in the top 1% PI's!

I don’t know about that. I know of and interact with many investors who are much better than me in terms of performance, research, skills etc. Stockopedia helped me to become more confident and more consistent. And I never underestimate the role that luck plays.

2:05pm

Go into your account on the iI website. (The app doesn’t provide the performance data). Open the account and on the top right there is in blue the statement “Performance X-Ray”. If you click that you will get a data sheet and at the top a menu of data. You click on the Performance and it will take you to performance over various time periods and a breakdown of the performance of your most significant holdings during the year as well.

Hope that helps.

2:27pm

Breakouts often fail in the UK - I often find waiting for first reversal can be a lower risk entry. Not always ofc!

Dipen Boghani

6:57pm

Hi Ed,

Thank you.

I have kept some old stocks which I had before i joined stockopedia which has good quality rank but poor value and momentum, I thought good quality stocks should grow over long term. your chart shows good quality stocks did not do so well compared to good value and momentum over last year, do you think this year has been outlier or this is how it behaves every time?

wishing all best wishes and seasons greetings

john robinson

40 mins ago

Thanks everybody for a totally absorbing year from which I have learnt something nearly every day

For me this has been my best year since the technology boom

Thanks to Tom Winnifrith I bought few PAF in 2007 I think at an average of 5 p

They did very well but when Jan Nelson left in 2017 I sold l out ( 16/17p)but kept following and when they got down to 9p and Corbus Loot took over I started buying again

Time in the market is the lesson I draw from this

As a footnote I have only once followed TW share tip

2025 in Review - Winners and Losers across the StockRank Spectrum

The backdrop - a stronger market than it felt

The StockRanks did their job - again

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Edward Croft

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