“When a clown moves into a palace. He doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” – Elizabeth Bangs (adaptation of a Turkish proverb)

The dollar debasement trade has continued in full swing through January. The dollar’s decline against other fiat currencies as measured by the dollar index (DXY) has fallen from 98.1 at the start of the year to 96.91 at the end of the first month. But when measured against Gold and Silver… well, let’s just say gold is up 13.13% YTD and silver is up 18.77% YTD, despite a rather curious precious metals sell-off on the last day of the month.

I say curious because it seems to have been a move orchestrated by the Western bullion banks, largely while the Asian physical metals markets were closed. A paper slam that JP Morgan seem to have caught right at the bottom – real Trading Places stuff!

In the context of the monthly precious metals performance my portfolio being up 8.83% YTD seems like an underperformance, but it is a significant outperformance against my benchmarks; FTSE All Share TR +2.96% YTD and Vanguard World ETF (VWRL) +0.53% YTD.  

My exposure to gold, silver and miners is now nearing 50% and while I would like to take profits at some stage, I literally have no idea what I would reinvest those profits into. Cash, stocks and alternatives such as property and infrastructure all seem more dangerous than precious metals at this juncture. I would like to buy some additional dividend yield but I am not yet sure how to do that. Watch this space.

Company News

I only own six individual companies at the moment and therefore, company news flow is minimal.

Games Workshop (GAW) – Interim Results – Revenue up 17%, operating profit up 28%, gross margin 69%. I continue to rate GAW very highly and to collect irregular (yet actually quite regular) dividends which I hope continues for many years to come.

Polar Capital (POLR) – Q3 AuM Update – Assets under Management increased from £26.7bn to £28.4bn during the quarter. This was mainly from market movements but also included net inflows of £149m. Active managers picking up net inflows has been a rarity these past few years and the share price has, rightly, responded positively to this news. The company also reported net performance fees for the nine months to 31 December 2025 of £16m which is double that of the previous financial year. This also provides some level of confidence that the dividend (currently 7.8%) will be maintained when the full year results are published.   

Personal Group (PGH) – Full Year Trading Update – Revenue up 11% and adjusted EBITDA up 21% which is ahead of market expectations. The market has responded positively and with a 7.3% forecast dividend I am happy to continue holding.

Dividends

A quiet start to the year with dividends incoming from Polar Capital (POLR) and Games Workshop (GAW).

Portfolio Changes

I have exited TP Icap (TCAP), XPS Pensions (XPS), Me Group (MEGP) and Advanced Technology (ADVT) during the month. There is nothing wrong with any of these companies and in normal circumstances I would have been happy to continue holding them but I wanted to make some structural asset allocation changes.

New holdings are Aberdeen Asian Income (AAIF), CT Managed Income (CMPI), iShares Physical Gold (SGLN), VanEck Gold Miners (GDGB) and the high-quality gold/silver streaming company Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM).

Right at the end of the month, I also switched my holding in Golden Prospect Precious Metals (GPM) into Income Shares Gold Covered Calls (GLDE) that seem to provide exposure to gold with maybe less upside than GPM but also less volatility, plus a yield of 10%. This is my first foray into these covered calls products and my expectation is less downside volatility, less upside than my other physical gold holdings but offset by a useful income. I am treating this as an experiment while accepting there will also be some additional risk involved in using this type of product.   

Asset Allocation

I am viewing my portfolio as having three buckets – direct equities, metals and mining funds and general funds. These are the current holdings:

Direct Equities ~40% Target Weight

Goodwin (GDWN)
Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM)
Games Workshop (GAW)
Personal Group (PGH)
IG Group (IGG)
Polar Capital (POLR)

Metals and Mining Funds ~40% Target Weight

Royal Mint Physical Gold (RMAP)
Ishares Physical Silver (SSLN)
iShares Gold Producers (SPGP)
iShares Physical Gold (SGLN)
VanEck Gold Miners (GDGB)
Income Shares Gold (GLDE)

General Equity Funds ~20% Target Weight

JP Morgan Global Growth & Income (JGGI)
Invesco Global Equity Income (IGET)
Aberdeen Asian Income (AAIF)
CT Managed Income (CMPI)

Monthly Momentum

5 out of 6 direct equity holdings delivered positive returns during the month. The biggest contributor was Goodwin (GDWN) while Games Workshop (GAW) was the only detractor.

There were also of course, significant returns from the various gold and silver funds, in line with the performance of the underlying metals. 

Closing Thoughts

You might have thought I was referring to a particular world leader in the opening quote of this article but the truth is, there are several it could apply to. The chaos being created by the clowns is perhaps necessary for this global trading and monetary reset to take place. Let us hope that the East and West chasm doesn’t lead us to a larger kinetic war in the process.

And on that happy note I shall wish you all the best of fortune for a successful February.

Simon
@BrilliantLeader
Substack     

Disclosure – At the time of writing, I own shares in the companies on the graphic below, some of which were mentioned in this article.