In total contrast to 2022, last year was a very strong one for my portfolio, especially in my Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). Many of my holdings notched up double-digit gains while a handful rose by more than 100%.
Here’s a look at the top 20 shares across my SIPP and ISA.
My investing strategy
Firstly, I should mention that my portfolio is weighted towards quality growth stocks. After an exceptional year for some of these, this is even more so the case now.
Also, I’m mainly investing for retirement, so my time horizon is in the decades.
Therefore, I’m comfortable with share price volatility. In fact, I welcome it, as it often allows me to accumulate more of my favourite stocks at cheaper prices.
A strong year
Here’s how my 20 largest stock holdings did last year. The performance figures don’t include dividends.
| Stock | Gain/(loss) |
| Axon Enterprise | 55.7% |
| Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust | 11.8% |
| Mastercard | 22.6% |
| MercadoLibre | 85.7% |
| Shopify | 124.4% |
| The Trade Desk | 60.5% |
| Visa | 25.3% |
| Legal & General | 0.6% |
| Games Workshop | 15.2% |
| Diageo | (-21.7%) |
| Ferrari | 58% |
| BlackRock World Mining Trust | (-15.8%) |
| Nvidia | 238.9% |
| Moderna | (-44.6%) |
| McDonald’s | 12.5% |
| Intuitive Surgical | 27.1% |
| Ashtead | 15.7% |
| ASML | 38.5% |
| Tesla | 101.7% |
| Scottish American Investment Company | 5.3% |
Many of these are well-established businesses that are almost impossible to replicate, notably Ferrari, ASML, Visa and Mastercard.
However, further down my portfolio, I also invested in a few small- and mid-cap UK companies last year. Ones I’m excited about include Greggs, Ashtead Technology, hVIVO and Volution Group.
Winning businesses
Looking back, one key lesson for me is that winners can just keep on winning. My largest holding, Axon Enterprise (NASDAQ: AXON), rose for the eighth year in a row.
The firm continues to thrive as its real-world hardware (Tasers, dashcams and bodycams) connects ever more deeply with its software offerings (Axon Evidence, Records, Response). It is an incredibly powerful ecosystem with huge switching costs.
Granted, the stock isn’t cheap today, which presents valuation risk. But it was supposedly ‘overpriced’ when I first bought it nearly a decade ago. I personally don’t mind paying up for high-quality growth, within reason.
But it also works the other way. I get equally as bullish when I see what I perceive to be a top-notch business trading unreasonably cheaply.
Last year, one stock that I thought fell into this bargain-basement category was insurer Legal & General. I bought the shares on seven separate occasions (not counting dividend reinvestments). It is now my eighth largest holding.
Foolish takeaway
As some of my top stocks continue to blossom, I appreciate why the best investors take the long view.
“If you aren’t willing to own a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes,” advised billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Fellow super-investor Peter Lynch said: “Selling companies that are doing well and purchasing ones that are faring poorly is like watering the weeds and cutting the flowers.”
“The big money is not in the buying and the selling, but in the waiting,” also observed the late Charlie Munger.
In 2024, I’ll be letting my winners run higher, if they do, while trying to identify further opportunities.
I won’t get everything right. But as the 20 stocks above demonstrate, I don’t always need to in order to do well.
