02 January 2026
By Maynard Paton
Sad news I am afraid. I have decided to stop blogging about my shares and portfolio.
This decision has not been easy. But my portfolio’s woeful 2025 finally confirmed something I have contemplated for some time…
…that my modest long-term gains do not justify the time and effort I dedicate to publishing this blog.
Something has to change, and I wish to step away from the spotlight to determine how to improve my returns.
Contents
Disclosure: Maynard owns shares in Andrews Sykes, Bioventix, City of London Investment, Mincon, Mountview Estates, S & U, System1, FW Thorpe and M Winkworth. This article contains ShareScope affiliate links.
‘Lengthy and complicated’
I commenced this blog at the start of 2015 after I gave up 9-5 work to become a full-time investor.
My former day job involved writing investment articles for a finance website. I then believed that continuing to write about shares would help my returns. As I wrote within About My Blog:
“I have always believed publishing my investment thoughts and research could help improve my portfolio returns.
In particular, writing down exactly why I have bought a share — knowing that others will read the text and try to pick holes — has always forced me to assess the upside potential and downside risks of my investments in greater depth.”
But I also wrote:
“Publishing also persuades me to keep my share ideas simple. When a write-up starts to become lengthy and complicated, I have often found the company in question comes with higher risks and therefore more chance of disappointment.”
Write-ups on this blog have certainly become “lengthy and complicated“.
When I started this blog, I committed to writing a review about every set of results from every company I owned.
At first, each review amounted to 1,000 words or so and the time involved was very manageable. But my reviews have since transformed into 10,000-15,000-word epics. And all the extra research and writing has just not converted into extra returns.
My blog really changed during the pandemic lockdowns. With time on my hands and buoyed by a surprisingly decent 2020 (my portfolio gained 17% while the FTSE declined 11%), I revamped my website and started delving much deeper into my holdings.
I assured myself that knowing more about my shares than 99% of other private investors would give me a market advantage. Each review then became longer to produce as I evaluated more aspects about each business. I even began including my own charts.
But the longer the write-ups became, the longer I had to spend on proofreading, image creation, link checking and other publishing tasks — none of which was related to out-performing the market.
Long story short, I put myself on a blogging treadmill that required every 10,000-15,000-word review to be published before the company in question issued its next figures.
I have in fact often been too engrossed in preparing a blog about one holding to pay attention to events at my other holdings. And the primary reason I have not introduced a new company into my portfolio since 2017 is because I have time only to blog about eight positions — at least to my 10,000-15,000-word standard.
Throw in an unexpected ‘life event’ — two years ago my wife suffered a permanent health disorder — and the blogging treadmill eventually became too much.
Trailing the FTSE
My Q4 2025 round-up confirms I have failed to beat the FTSE 100 since the start of this blog. My portfolio has gained 77% while the UK benchmark has gained 130%:
I have also trailed the FTSE 100 over the last one, three, five, ten and eleven years:
| To 31 December 2025 | My Portfolio | FTSE 100 TRI |
| 1 year | (24.4%) | 25.8% |
| 3 years | 6.8% (2.2%pa) | 48.9% (14.2%pa) |
| 5 years | 2.0% (0.4%pa) | 84.7% (13.1%pa) |
| 10 years | 49.9% (4.1%pa) | 133.1% (8.8%pa) |
| From 31 December 2014 | 77.3% (5.3%pa) | 130.1% (7.9%pa) |
Now you may say this under-performance is due to my particularly woeful 2025. And yes, my returns seemed a lot brighter this time last year:
And yes, my returns could also look a lot brighter this time next year.
You might also say investing in UK smaller companies has been very tough since 2022 and arguably very tough since mid-2016. ShareScope suggests approximately 73% of all UK shares have trailed the FTSE 100 after I commenced this blog.
But the job of the active stock-picker is to actually pick winners, and not blame a lacklustre portfolio on surprise macro events, unfavourable political changes and/or adverse sector trends.
There have been major winners I overlooked. In particular, I could not bring myself to purchase Games Workshop at £31 (now £189) nor Goodwin at £28, £18 or £36 (now £213).
There have been sizeable losers I hung on to for far too long, most notably Tasty (since renamed Bow Street).
And there have been times when I should have locked in substantial gains, not least with Tristel and System1. Investment writing tip: The market gods always have the last laugh with overconfident share bloggers!
While my portfolio’s efforts versus the FTSE 100 are very unfortunate, the following comparison is truly sobering…
‘An utter waste of time’
My portfolio consisted of the following shares when I commenced this blog at the start of 2015:
That list contains nine shares I no longer hold:
- Burford Capital (BUR);
- French Connection (FCCN);
- Electronic Data Processing (EDP);
- Getech (GTC);
- Pennant International (PEN);
- Record (REC);
- SeaEnergy (SEA);
- Tasty (TAST) (since renamed Bow Street (BOW)), and;
- Tristel (TSTL).
What would have happened if had left my portfolio completely unchanged for the next eleven years?
Here are the subsequent returns:
Including dividends I would have owned two five baggers and two almost-three-baggers. I would have also held on to a 99.6% loser and a total 100% loser.
With all dividends simply accumulated as cash, my unchanged portfolio would now look like this:
And guess what? This unchanged portfolio would now be WORTH 17% MORE than my actual portfolio:
Note that my actual portfolio would have been worth more than this unchanged portfolio only at the end of 2015 and 2024. This unchanged portfolio was in contrast worth more than my actual portfolio at the end of 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025.
And this unchanged portfolio was full of UK small-caps that suffered the same macro events, political changes and sector trends as my actual holdings.
In pure financial terms at least, publishing nearly 400 blog posts about my portfolio since the start of 2015 has been an utter waste of time. I would have been somewhat wealthier staying with the 9-5 and just leaving my shares alone.
But let me stress… I do not regret leaving the 9-5 and starting this blog! Not least because I would have always wondered ‘what might have been’… and become incredibly miserable by not daring to take the FIRE leap. I gave the blog a go, my portfolio has not performed as expected and I am now a lot older and a little wiser.
Thank you
An unexpected bonus of writing this blog has been all the informative article comments and contact-form messages I have received.
I have been taken aback by the wide circle of knowledge of my readership, with some extremely insightful snippets received from several company ‘insiders’ and other investors who delve into their shares even deeper than me. And I have loved meeting readers in person at AGMs and investor events. My sincere thanks go to everyone that has contributed or said hello.
I would particularly like to thank Stefan Barden and George Karpus for agreeing to talk to me ‘on the record’ for my blog.
Both gentlemen reminded me — in no uncertain terms! — that i) non-executives are appointed to serve the interests of shareholders, and; ii) all company expenses reflect shareholder money that could otherwise be paid as dividends. A lot of UK small-cap boards appear to have forgotten those two simple concepts.
What now?
- My blog will remain available for anyone wishing to read the archives:
- Visit my A-Z page for the full list of company articles, and;
- Visit my portfolio page for the full list of quarterly portfolio reviews.
- I will no longer publish any blog posts about my shares or portfolio.
- I will continue to write articles for ShareScope and will continue to publish links to those articles on my blog.
- I will stop sending emails that link to my blog (I am still amazed 1,500-plus people were happy to receive my emails!).
- My contact form will remain open should you wish to send a message. Insightful snippets are always welcome!
- The comments section on a number of my blog posts will remain open, too.
- I will probably write occasionally about my shares on ADVFN (username ‘TMFMayn‘). But not 10,000-15,000-word epics. Just the normal bulletin-board chat… with no treadmill and no proofreading!
Thank you for reading, and I wish you safe and healthy investing.
Maynard Paton
I totally understand why you’ve reached this point but I want to put on record my appreciation of all of the content you’ve provided over the years…which has definitely added to my understanding of many businesses that aren’t widely covered
Best wishes for 2026 & beyond
Sorry to hear Maynard – I have very much enjoyed your writing over the years. All the best – James.
Such level of intellectual honesty is rarely seen. I fully understand your decision and hope that it helps you to achieve returns you are striving for. Best wishes to you and your family!
Thank you so much for past efforts. I have held several of the shares in your portfolio and clung to them in the belief “If they are good enough for Maynard”. Fortunately that has not been a bad policy, the shares had the additional benefit of BPR relief – not now the advantage they once carried. Very best wishes, Robert
Fully understand your reasons – I would like to thank you for your service to the small investor community. I have found your reports very insightful and helpful. Also it was lovely to meet you at the BVXP AGM – Peter
Thanks Maynard for all your hard work. Small-cap investing in the UK has been very difficult for a few years, so I am sure you are not alone. It’s been difficult to out-perform the FTSE-All Share or the S&P500. Best wishes for 2026.
Sorry to read this Maynard but completely understand. Perhaps you could consider a short annual summary. Look forward to your articles on Sharescope
Also very sorry to see this. I have very much enjoyed following your blogs and will miss these. The level of transparency and honest self-reflection presented has been refreshing and exemplary. I’ve learned a lot from your analytical and critical thinking. Thank you and all the very best!
I’m proud to know you as an excellent analyst Maynard, and as a friend. Everything you have written over the years and indeed today makes sense. You saved me from one large loss and have helped to make me a wiser investor.
My wife and I hope you and your family have a good 2026.
Thank you so much Maynard for sharing your excellent blog over the years.
All the very best for 2026, MikeY
I am sorry you have had to make this decision but a big thank you for your wisdom and insight. I have very much appreciated and enjoyed your blog. Wishing you and your family the best for the future and ‘no regrets’ is a good place to start from.
hi maynard – sorry to hear your stepping back – i very much enjoyed and valued your insightful analysis, particularly of Mountview estates (where we met at the AGM).
Remember the great Charlie Munger suffered some dreadful individual years in the 70s (which are to be expected with a very concentrated portfolio) – didn’t stop him being a Legend.
Best of luck and I hope we may see you at future AGMs.
Regards
Philip
Hi Maynard,
I have been a reader of your blog since 2022, and I have immensely enjoyed the writeups here and on Sharescope.
Though, I completely understand your perspective here, and why you don’t wish to continue with the blog.
Thank you for the detailed responses you have kindly given to all my (rather basic) questions over the years.
I look forward to reading your future articles on Sharescope!
Finally I am so sorry to hear of your wife’s illness. All the best to her, you and the rest of your family.
Very warm regards,
Peter
Best of luck in the future Maynard.
FWIW despite the over-optimistic projections by management a while back, I still have some faith in SYS1 – I have held a tiny amount since approx 2010 (Although lots of selling and buying along the way and now holding a decent amount – My whole holding is currently worth £27k having fortunately taken some profits.)
My thoughts are these: The whole advertising, analysis and data markets are having a torrid time and yet SYS1 is still winning a lot of important customers. It isn’t Alphabet (obviously), but it is a surprisingly go ahead firm that has managed to morph from a dying business into a growth business. (But I could be wrong!)
Hopefully you will eventually get a decent return on your large investment and I’ll also do ok.
Regards
Charles
Dear Maynard,
I have learnt such a lot from your in depth analysis of smaller firms. It never occurred to me, until I read your various blogs, how a family firm like Mountview could be riven with internecine family warfare. All very helpful as in the end of the day you are quite dependent as an investor on the heroes or chumps at the top of a company
I won’t half miss you
Best wishes
Bertie
Maynard
Sorry to hear you are quitting your blog, but fully understand and respect your reasons. As well as the negative impact of time spent writing on your investment performance, I suspect publishing your thoughts in so much detail might have resulted in a few cases of commitment bias.
I wish you well with your future investing.
Best
Bill
The type of analysis that you do makes the difference between getting more good news than bad.
I don’t have much and I know I wont make massive returns and I may probably lose but thats unimportant- markets are a beautiful thing and it would be hard to turn my back on them.
Will be using this blog as a reference for quality analysis regardless of whether there are further updates. Thank you
I would like to say that I have enjoyed reading your blog over the years. Your honesty is refreshing and depth of research / understanding incredible. Thankyou for sharing your hard work.
My wife succumbed to Stage 4 leukemia during Covid, weeks after I had retired from work and a few weeks before our downsizing home move was due to complete. The timing was not ideal ! I really feel for you and your wife, knowing how your lives must have been turned upside down. Its tough. I think you have probably made the right decision about the blog.
I wish you both all the best for the future
Steve
Hi Maynard, Sorry you have stopped but I fully understand your decision. I’m not brave enough to share my thoughts. I’ve enjoyed your writing very much over the years. Thank you. FWIW I have also been buying more BVXP over the past year as the price has tumbled. Fingers crossed!
I am very sorry to hear the blog is coming to an end. As a fellow and long-suffering Bioventix and FW Thorpe shareholder, I was always interested to get your take when results came out. Your in-depth analysis and deep research often highlighted gaps in my own process and I appreciate everything that you did, putting your work in the public domain.
Like you, I had a bit of an existential crisis with regard to my personal investing just over a year ago. After several years of under-performance, I debated selling everything and putting the proceeds into an all-world index (ACWI accumulating share class precisely). In the end, I got scared that I was selling out of my UK small-cap’s and buying into an index at exactly the wrong time, so I ended up splitting the portfolio, putting half into ACWI, and leaving the rest effectively in run-off. Needless to say, the passive portfolio went up nearly 10% in 2025, the active part down 18%.
I suppose at least this year my decision was only half-wrong. Hoping the best for you in your future endeavours, Maynard. I do hope you continue to produce content on shares in some format in the future.
Hi Maynard,
Fully understand your reasoning and wish you every success for the future. For me you were the most comprehensive share blogger I have come across. We shared some holdings and your in depth insights helped me challenge my existing holdings and strategy. I will really miss your contributions but will look out for you on ADVFN.
Wishing you every success.
I’ve found your posts incredibly useful over the years. I’m sad to see them come to an end. I think you set the bar too high and could have covered only material changes/progress in company outlooks once beyond the initial coverage write-up.
With regards to performance, your portfolio currently dances to the tune of Sys1, last for the better, this year for the worse…
I wish you all the best. Maybe one day you would consider writing an annual letter?
Maynard, thank you for sharing your analysis over the last 10 years. I’ve always appreciated your portfolio reviews.
Best wishes for the new year, I hope 2026 is kinder to your portfolio
Chris
I totally understand your reasoning Maynard, nonetheless I shall miss your perspective and insightful comments.
Wishing you well for future returns.
Chris
Hi Maynard,
Many thanks for your excellent blog over the past 3 years. I will endeavour to recreate your level of research when I’m looking into stocks!
And thank you for answering my (admittedly basic) questions over the past several years in so much detail.
My very best wishes to you and your wife.
Hi Maynard, your blog and your story has been a great source of information and for me education and inspiration over the years which I appreciate you taking your time to share.
I completely understand the decision to take a step back from the blog, but I will look out as always for your ShareScope posts.
Best wishes to you and your family. Matt
I’ll very much miss reading your outstanding analysis Maynard, your dissection of the notes section of Annual Reports is truly unsurpassed.
I do though agree your choice to stop is probably the correct one, ultimately anything that adds pressure to investment decisions or reduces the available time to research companies is counter productive to investment gains.
I’ve always enjoyed communicating with you and really enjoyed our chat after the SYS1 Agm recently.
All the best and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to discuss any of our shared holdings (or even new ones!)
Cheers
Patrick
Hello Maynard.
I also want to add my thanks for your consistently outstanding posts and your level of commitment to the blog over a number of years. Readers of your blog have all benefitted hugely. I hope that you will still go to AGMs and that we meet up again before long.
Every best wish to you and your family.
Andrew
Thanks from Spain, visit Spain! Gracias y buena suerte
Dear Maynard,
I was a very recent subscriber, finding you through ShareScope.
I thought this blogpost on why you were ending your commentaries required a painful honesty in comparing your record to the FTSE100. It may have been difficult to write I personally gave up any attempt to pick individual shares many moons ago and now follow a fairly straightforward risk adjusted momentum system using ETFs. My best wishes to you and your family.
Hi Maynard,
Have not messaged you in a long time. I first came across you at TMF in 2009 the start of my more serious investing. You helped me considerably even with the TAST introduction! Now I’m retired I used a lot of my funds to Project Manage a self build House which hopefully in itself will be a good investment. These days the rest of my investments are looked after my FA which do OK circa 8% PA so nothing special but they are stable.
You have had some good years and maybe you will outpace the FTSE again in 2026!
Good luck, do your thing and dont worry about the blogging we will survive!
Thanks again
David
Hi Maynard,
Sorry to see that you’re no longer going to be updating your blog, it is a big loss to the UK investing community. However I do understand your decision given the amount of effort that you put in to the process.
I would like to say thank you for all of the work that you have put into the blog. When I started investing back in 2019, I found your work to be one of the few resources that was truly invaluable and it really helped me to develop my investing process and build my confidence as an investor. Thank you for providing your work for free and leaving the blog open. I look forward to continuing to read your work on SharePad.
I have been similarly bruised by System 1 this year where it feels like 1 step forward, 2 steps back. After much lamenting for not doing what I said I was going to do, which was to sell out at the price Stefan Barden said he would look to sell his holding at because I didn’t trust the management, I’ve become a bit more sanguine about what has happened. On reflection it looked like management were executing their plan, until all of a sudden they weren’t. I’ve come to the conclusion that having patience and holding on to the few exceptional companies that perform well and multi bag is what generates real returns, the difficulty is it is hard to tell in advance which ones multi baggers, so a few System1s are inevitably to be expected along the way. The main lesson I have learnt is to remember that very few people are capable of sustained change. So if it takes external pressure on a management team to change how they run a business, I should expect them to revert to type once that external pressure isn’t there or once it diminishes. I think they have something valuable at System 1, but agree with you that the current management and board aren’t willing or able to unlock that value.
Thanks for another informative year end write up and thanks again for all your work on the blog. All the best for 2026 and best wishes to your wife, who I hope is recovering from her health set back.
Would thoroughly enjoy a once yearly recap. Admire your frankness. Am sure your next learning curve will be from an excellent base. Thank you for your blog.
Thanks for the time you have put into writing the blog. I haven’t come across company analysis as good anywhere else. I’ve learned a lot from reading and will miss it. Wishing you all the best for the future.
Big thank you from me too, as I really enjoyed reading your writing over the years and I will miss it sorely.
Your blog was one of the reasons I started writing about my own investing journey on Substack (The Boon Fund), as I benefitted so much from your sharing, I wanted to share my own investing thoughts too.
I sadly don’t have a Sharescope subscription, so won’t be able to keep following your future writing.. For now. But I hope to bump into you again! Either online or in person at an investor event. Maybe the next SYS1 AGM… :)
I am sorry to hear that you are stepping away, but I wanted to thank you.
Your posts have been an invaluable resource for me. Thanks to your clear explanations and analysis, I feel much more confident in my ability to understand businesses.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge so generously. Wishing you all the best.