I'm running a webinar in less than an hour (sign up here) and I wanted to put a marker down before we start.
This afternoon’s webinar is a “half time” review of the NAPS Portfolio - the No-Admin-Portfolio-System I’ve been publishing in public for 11½ years now. But it’s grown into something far bigger than a mid-term progress update.
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been running one of the largest simulations we’ve ever done on the NAPS portfolio ruleset: not just the UK, but across the US and 14 European markets too, using our archive data right back to 2015, after real-world costs - spreads, commission, stamp duty, the lot.
We've taken the core rules, and changed one rule at a time to watch what would happen.
Some of what came back genuinely surprised me. Here’s a quick taster.
Where the NAPS stands at half-time
First, the score (yes it's the World Cup). The NAPS has gained 13.0% so far in 2026 - that’s 10.6% of capital growth plus another 2.4% in ordinary and special dividends. The FTSE All-Share has returned 7.0% over the same stretch. So we’re running at roughly double the index, and dividends are doing real work.
What I find more instructive than the headline is the spread underneath it. Seplat Energy (LON:SEPL) is up 86%, CMC Markets (LON:CMCX) 54%, Gattaca (LON:GATC) 56% - and at the other end, Central Asia Metals (LON:CAML) is down 28%. That range is the whole reason I treat the portfolio as a system. You do not need to pick the winners.
High StockRanks, 20 stocks, sector diversified, in an equal-weighted book - the discipline is letting the basket do its job. This year, with the Hormuz energy shock setting the tone for everything, the diversity has earned its keep yet again.
What surprised me
Now to the half of the study I’m rather excited to talk through this evening.
The first big question we get, over and over, is: does this only work because it’s the UK? The honest answer - and I’ve now got the data to back it - is no. The core Quality + Value + Momentum NAPS worked in all the markets we tested, after costs, over 11 years:
- Europe…
