2025 Q1 Portfolio Update: Decent 3.5% return YTD and beating the S&P 500 over a 51 months period
- datascienceinvestor
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
There were some expectations that 2025 isn't going to be a very good year for equities.
Little did we know that it is on course to be a disastrous year with a potential full-fledged trade war looming.
In Q1 2025, the S&P 500 index had a negative return of more than 4%. And we all know what happens in the past few trading days when the S&P 500 index drops more than 9% in just 2 trading sessions (though that happens in Q2 technically).
While the index has a negative return, I am thankful that my portfolio still has a decent 3.5% return (although this is also quickly eroded away after the market plunge over the past 2 trading sessions).
For those who have followed me, you might have known that I constantly look into outperforming the market over a long period. This started in January 2021.
In Q1 this year, I finally beat the market.
Here is an overview of my portfolio's performance.
2025 Performance YTD
My Portfolio: 3.50%
Vanguard 500 Index: -4.31%
Performance since inception (Jan 2021)
My Portfolio: 66.9%
Vanguard 500 Index: 56.8%
(Based on an arbitrary starting amount of $10,000)
My portfolio has actually already outperformed the index in January 2025. This outperformance has continued for the whole of Q1 2025. I am looking forward to seeing if my portfolio can continue to pull ahead of the index for the rest of 2025.
For an overview of the YTD performance of the constituents in my portfolio, refer to the below table.
I guess the greatest shock or rather surprise has to be Alibaba with a return of 55.95% in Q1. Despite this astronomical gain, this stock is still nowhere near where it used to be a couple of years ago due to the constant double-digit negative return in the past few years.
ARK ETFs continue to underperform. I have already trimmed my stakes at the start of 2025 and will likely continue to do so in 2026.
Most of the constituents of my portfolio have a negative return as you can see from the table above. BRK.B gives a big boost to my portfolio with a 17.49% return. Given its sizable portion in my portfolio, its gains certainly help to offset the losses by the other constituents in my portfolio.
With what's happening in the global scene now, I am not so positive about 2025. I will be glad if my portfolio has a slight positive growth in 2025. Expectations of a strong double digit growth like the previous 2 years will likely not be realistic.
Moving forward, I will be sharing more content in my Telegram channel. 280+ like-minded investors have already joined this channel. Do join if you are interested.