QUALIPORT
The End Of The Qualiport

By Maynard Paton (TMFMayn)
September 6, 2005

This is the end of the Qualiport. Next week's portfolio article will unveil a brand new and exciting successor!

To wrap up the portfolio, I'm going to summarise what I've learnt about investing from writing Qualiport articles since 1999. I'll also review the portfolio's overall performance.

My favourite articles

I've learnt plenty about the stock market since I started writing for the Qualiport in 1999. Hopefully some of you Fools out there have benefited from the portfolio's ups and downs as well! In terms of all-round investment education, I've listed some of my favourite Qualiport articles below:

Five Years Of Managing A Public Portfolio
Why Stock Picking Is A Loser's Game
Five Big Buffett Mistakes
What Went Wrong... And Why
Five Top Qualiport Decisions
How To Be A Successful Investor
What Company Directors Don't Tell You
Don't Be Afraid Of Buying On A War Scare
Five Cash-Flow Nightmares
How Hope Can Lose You Money

If you want a quick recap of my experience running the Qualiport, Five Years Of Managing A Public Portfolio pretty much sums up what I've learned from, well, five years of managing a public portfolio! My key points are:

* Investing is not a team sport;
* Keep on top of your companies;
* Start a watch list;
* Stick to your guns;
* Look for the obvious;
* Don't always believe the directors, and;
* Get tough on losers.

I'd also recommend reading What Went Wrong... And Why, which looks at some of the howlers this portfolio has made in the past (you know, Marks & Spencer (LSE: MKS), MMT Computing...). The key lessons from that were:

* Beware the company that has to chop and change its stock every year to remain popular;
* Seemingly great companies that operate in traditionally difficult industries will, more often than not, eventually lead to disappointment;
* Relying on unproven management in a people-reliant business just invites portfolio trouble, and;
* Pay too much over and above a company's intrinsic value and no matter how great the fundamentals are, the shares will underperform.

Another instructive article was Five Big Buffett Mistakes. Along the way, the Qualiport came a cropper trying to emulate legendary investor Warren Buffett because its managers:

* Believed they too were investment geniuses;
* Believed most businesses were long-term holds;
* Believed they too had billions to invest;
* Believed what was good for Buffett was good for them, and;
* Believed in the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and other long-term projections.

Every Qualiport article is listed in the Fool archives for posterity. Happy learning!

Qualiport performance

The following table summarises the investment performance of the Qualiport. For the record, the Qualiport's performance includes costs (stamp duty, dealing commissions and bid/offer spreads) and dividends. The performance of the FTSE All-Share excludes all costs but includes reinvested dividends. Although the portfolio started in 1997, formal tracking of its performance began at the start of 1999.

Year	Start value (£)	Additions (£)	End value (£)	Qualiport gain/(loss) (%)	FTSE All-Share gain/(loss) (%)
1999	16,810	4,000	22,009	6.4	24.2
2000	22,009	4,000	22,157	(16.0)	(5.9)
2001	22,157	-	21,806	(1.6)	(13.3)
2002	21,806	-	18,307	(16.0)	(22.7)
2003	18,307	-	22,374	22.2	20.9
2004	22,374	-	29,888	32.8	10.8
2005*	29,888	-	29,450	(1.5)	14.0

(*to 5 September 2005)

So was the Qualiport worth the effort? Did it beat a tracker?

Yes!

Date	Qualiport	FTSE All-Share total return index	Tracker equivalent 05/09/05 (£)
01/01/1999	£16,810 starting value	2456	20,481
01/04/1999	£2,000 addition	2691	2,224
01/10/1999	£2,000 addition	2627	2,278
01/04/2000	£2,000 addition	2911	2,056
01/10/2000	£2,000 addition	2900	2,064
05/09/2005		2992	29,103

At the end of 1998, the portfolio was worth £16,810. Had the portfolio (and the £8,000 invested during 1999 and 2000) been invested in a FTSE All-Share tracker, it would now be worth £29,103. The Qualiport overall therefore beat the market by £347 (i.e £29,450 less £29,103).

However, the Qualiport's relative performance is much better if you exclude the stock-picking efforts of Fool boss Bruce Jackson, who managed the portfolio before me!

I trounced the market!

I wrote my first Qualiport article on 24 November 1999, at which point the portfolio was valued at £20,039. Had the portfolio (and the £4,000 invested during 2000) been invested in a FTSE All-Share tracker, it would now be worth £24,935:

Date	Qualiport	FTSE All-Share total return index	Tracker equivalent 05/09/05 (£)
24/11/1999	£20,039 starting value	2881	20,816
01/04/2000	£2,000 addition	2911	2,056
01/10/2000	£2,000 addition	2900	2,064
05/09/2005		2992	24,935

Despite two high-profile disasters under my stewardship -- MMT and PizzaExpress -- I beat the FTSE All-Share by a wide margin. At yesterday's close (5th September), the Qualiport was worth £4,515 (or 18%) more than the £24,935 the portfolio would have stood at had I put everything into an index tracker!

Significantly, the last investment decision I made that cost the portfolio money occurred all the way back in April 2002 (a PizzaExpress top-up). Here's a summary of my 20 purchases of 10 different shares.

Share	Date of purchases	Average gain/(loss) (%)*
Johnston Press (LSE: JPR)	Sep 2001 (x2)/May 2002	87
London Stock Exchange (LSE: LSE)	Dec 2002/Nov 2003/Oct 2004	71
Emap (LSE: EMA)	Sep 2001 (x2)	46
Carpetright (LSE: CPR)	Aug 2001/Sep 2001	45
Halma (LSE: HLMA)	Mar 2003	38
Associated British Ports (LSE: ABP)	Jun 2004	12
DFS Furniture	Feb 2002	(3)
Lloyds TSB (LSE: LLOY)	Sep 2001	(33)
PizzaExpress	Jun 2000/Dec 2000/Apr 2002	(50)
MMT Computing	Apr 2000/Aug 2000/Dec 2000	(80)

(*excludes dividends. As at 05/09/05)

The Qualiport's full trade history gives more information on the purchases and subsequent disposals.

What now?

That's it for the Qualiport. The final portfolio value will be taken at the close of trade on Monday 12 September 2005 and published in the last ever Qualiport article on Tuesday 13 September 2005. That article will also unveil more about an exciting, new Fool stock market service, which will recommend Qualiport-type shares as well as many others! For a sneak preview now, however, read The Next 12,100% Return!

Maynard owns shares in Associated British Ports, Halma, Johnston Press and London Stock Exchange.

Portfolio value

Holding	Number of shares	Closing price 05/09/05 (p)	Value (£)
Associated British Ports	681	466.5	3,176.87
Emap	372	814	3,028.08
Halma	1,920	154	2,956.80
Johnston Press	1,608	502.5	8,080.20
London Stock Exchange	2,018	576	11,623.68
Cash			584.40
Total			29,450.03