The Qualiport
Qualiport has now closed.
Visit Champion Shares the Fool's new share recommendation service
QUALIPORT
The Qualiport -- Introduction
Latest Qualiport Report
Short for 'The Quality Portfolio', the Qualiport was an educational share portfolio
managed in public by the Motley Fool. The portfolio was run continuously from September 1997
to its closure in
September 2005. The portfolio was initially managed by former Fool UK boss Bruce
Jackson. Maynard Paton became portfolio manager in early 2000 and the portfolio
beat the market in
2001, 2002,
2003,
2004 and between
1999-2005. Maynard is now the lead writer at
Champion Shares.
The Qualiport's investment aim was:
To beat the return from a FTSE All-Share index tracker over the long term.
To achieve this aim, the Qualiport adopted the following investment strategy:
To buy great companies at attractive valuations and hold for the long term.
The investment philosophy was based upon the approach of legendary investor
Warren Buffett. This Buffett quote sums up the Qualiport's underlying strategy
very well:
"Your goal as an investor should simply be to purchase, at a rational price, a part
interest in an easily-understandable business whose earnings are virtually certain
to be materially higher five, ten and twenty years from now. Over time, you will
find only a few companies that meet these standards - so when you see one that qualifies,
you should buy a meaningful amount of stock. You must also resist the temptation
to stray from your guidelines: If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years,
don't even think about it for ten minutes. Put together a portfolio of companies
whose aggregate earnings march upward over the years, and so also, will the portfolio's
market value".
There were two parts to the Qualiport's investment philosophy:
Business Quality and Valuation.
As long-term investors, it was no good the Qualiport buying the greatest business
in the land if its share price factored in future profit growth for the next fifty
years. Similarly, it was no use the Qualiport considering companies that appeared
cheap on valuation grounds, but whose businesses possess distinctly unattractive
prospects.
Qualiport articles were
posted every Tuesday, as we continued to invest in the best companies in the country.
We did not (deliberately, anyway!) buy part-ownership in companies we didn't consider
to have an above average chance of long-term out-performance.
The portfolio's trading rules were simple: every trade was announced in advance
within a Qualiport article and executed during the following five trading days.
Confirmation of an executed trade was subsequently posted to the
Qualiport discussion board.
Importantly, real
money was no longer invested in the Qualiport from 2001. However, corporate
actions (such as dividends and rights issues) and real-life costs (such as stamp
duty, spreads and dealing commissions -- set at £15 a trade) were all accounted
for in calculating the portfolio's value and performance.
The portfolio's value and holdings were shown at the bottom of every article. Detailed
quarterly portfolio standings were posted to the
Qualiport discussion board. The following links outline the annual performances:
1998,
1999, 2000,
2001,
2002, 2003,
2004,
1999-2005.
Reader feedback on our decisions was posted on the
Qualiport discussion board.
Where Next?
