<p>Loads of articles have looked at the best performing shares and funds over the 2010s. I thought I&#8217;d add a little twist, looking at the trusts that doubled in the first half of the decade and then repeated the trick in the second.</p>
<p><!--more--></p>
<p>Using my boundless imaginative powers, I&#8217;ve christened these &#8220;double doublers&#8221;. A second career in Hollywood scriptwriting surely can&#8217;t be far away.</p>
<p>As always, it&#8217;s important to stress that &#8220;past performance is no guarantee of future results&#8221; however interesting it may be to look at.</p>
<h2>The magic double</h2>
<p>Why choose doubling for this exercise?</p>
<p>Well, admittedly it is mostly because a 100% gain is a nice, round number.</p>
<p>Over five years, it represents compound annual growth of about 15%.</p>
<p>Long-term equity returns are reckoned to be 5-6% a year plus inflation.</p>
<p>With inflation at 2% or thereabouts, 15% a year, therefore, represents roughly double the long-term returns we have seen from the stock market.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s a high hurdle to jump consistently.</p>
<h2>The 20 double doublers</h2>
<p>Here is the list, organised by sector, based on share price total returns:</p>
<table id="iti">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: left;">Company name</th>
<th style="text-align: left;">Sector</th>
<th style="text-align: right;">% return<br />
2010-14</th>
<th style="text-align: right;">% return<br />
2015-19</th>
<th style="text-align: right;">% return<br />
2010-19</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2019/07/whats-a-sensible-premium-for-lindsell-train-investment-trust/">Lindsell Train</a></td>
<td>Global</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">137</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">250</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">730</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Scottish Mortgage</td>
<td>Global</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">151</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">143</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">509</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Baillie Gifford Japan</td>
<td>Japan</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">150</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">119</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">446</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon</td>
<td>Japanese Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">168</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">190</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">678</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>JPMorgan US Smaller Companies</td>
<td>North American Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">145</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">108</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">410</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>BMO Private Equity</td>
<td>Private Equity</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">135</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">114</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">403</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>NB Private Equity Partners</td>
<td>Private Equity</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">144</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">105</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Pantheon International</td>
<td>Private Equity</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">198</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">103</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">506</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2019/07/princess-private-equity/">Princess Private Equity Holding</a></td>
<td>Private Equity</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">185</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">112</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">503</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Aberdeen Smaller Companies Income</td>
<td>UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">142</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">117</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">425</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2019/05/blackrock-smaller-companies-small-cap-star-prentis-retires/">BlackRock Smaller Companies</a></td>
<td>UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">194</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">146</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">623</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>BlackRock Throgmorton Trust</td>
<td>UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">156</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">174</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">601</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2019/08/henderson-smaller-companies-strong-and-robust/">Henderson Smaller Companies</a></td>
<td>UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">225</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">122</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">621</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td>UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">136</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">142</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">472</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>JPMorgan Smaller Companies</td>
<td>UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">125</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">144</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">451</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2019/10/oryx-international-growth-small-cap-big-discount/">Oryx International Growth</a></td>
<td>UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">146</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">108</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">411</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2019/02/rights-issues-investment-trust/">Rights &; Issues</a></td>
<td>UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">198</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">137</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">607</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Standard Life UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td>UK Smaller Companies</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">138</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">149</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">492</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2019/03/a-tempting-time-to-turn-to-tech/">Allianz Technology</a></td>
<td>Technology &; Media</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">109</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">194</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">512</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2019/03/a-tempting-time-to-turn-to-tech/">Polar Capital Technology</a></td>
<td>Technology &; Media</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">128</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">172</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">520</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Followers of investment trusts won&#8217;t be surprised by many of these names.</p>
<p>Lindsell Train, Scottish Mortgage, and the Polar Capital &; Allianz tech trusts have been at the top of the performance tables for some time now.</p>
<p>Although there are around 400 investment trusts in total, only 250 or so have a ten-year record. Therefore, only about 1 in 12 twelve of all (surviving) trusts are double doublers.</p>
<h2>Small is powerful</h2>
<p>I suspected smaller companies would be a big theme before I mashed this data together, but I was surprised to see them account for 11 of the 20 spots.</p>
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<p>And it reinforces my view that UK smaller companies are one of the areas where investment trusts can add real value.</p>
<p>There are 18 UK smaller company trusts with a 10-year track record and half of them make this list. That&#8217;s quite astounding &#8212; even when you take the fact there is some <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias">survivorship bias</a> at play.</p>
<p>However, it&#8217;s worth remembering that the last decade has been a good one for UK smaller companies in general, despite the fact the wider UK market has struggled.</p>
<p>The FTSE 100 may have only returned 104% over the 2010s but the FTSE 250 and FTSE SmallCap have produced 210% and 184% respectively. The nine UK trusts on this list, though, all returned more than 400%.</p>
<h2>An even tougher test</h2>
<p>If we make the hurdle a little higher &#8212; <em>net asset value</em> doubling in both five-year periods, rather than share price &#8212; then 7 of the 20 drop out.</p>
<p>All of the private equity funds fail to make the grade. In fact, none of them managed to double their net asset value in either of the five-year periods. As I&#8217;ve often remarked, narrowing discounts over the last decade have had a massive impact on share price returns.</p>
<p>Indeed, many private equity trusts sat on discounts of 40%+ at the end of the global financial crisis, due to concerns that their underlying investments might be carrying too much debt to survive.</p>
<p>The JPMorgan US Smaller Companies trust and the Aberdeen and Henderson Smaller trusts also drop out, although the JPMorgan one only misses by a whisker.</p>
<h2>What&#8217;s missing?</h2>
<p>What&#8217;s missing from lists like these can also be revealing.</p>
<p>For the most part, country/regional specialists aren&#8217;t included. I think there are 50 such trusts with a 10-year record, but only 3 make the list.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s interesting that 2 of those are Japanese funds. Japan&#8217;s market (as measured by the Nikkei 225) is famously still below the peak it hit way back in 1989 although it has returned about 150% over the last decade in sterling terms.</p>
<p>I thought some more North American trusts might feature, but there are only 6 that have a 10-year track record. The investment trust sector prefers to fish in more exotic markets, with those wanting US exposure often plumping for trusts with a global mandate.</p>
<h2>Sectors need a little timing</h2>
<p>Sector funds are also largely absent, although there are fewer of them that have been around for a decade.</p>
<p>Technology is there but biotechnology/healthcare misses out, despite the fact it has a similar performance record over the whole decade and one more trust with a decade-long history.</p>
<p>To me, this speaks to the difficulty of making investments in specific areas confined by sector or region. Performance can wax and wane and I don&#8217;t think I have any great insight in picking the very best times to invest.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s why I tend to stick to global trusts and very broad themes like smaller companies, private equity and infrastructure.</p>
<p>Having said that, I&#8217;m still tempted to spice up my portfolio a little with <a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2019/07/boosting-returns-with-biotech/">some biotech exposure</a> as it seems overdue a decent run.</p>
<h2>Totally AWOL</h2>
<p>Other notable absentees from the double doublers are the entire alternative asset and VCT sectors.</p>
<p>Most alternative asset funds are geared towards income, so it&#8217;s not surprising they don&#8217;t feature. They might make 15% a year every now and again, particularly if their premiums widen significantly, but doing so over a 5-year period is much more of a stretch.</p>
<p>Many of them set out to make perhaps 7-8% a year. And of course, the vast majority of them didn&#8217;t exist ten years ago.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2018/11/vcts-take-a-brave-leap-forward/">Venture capital trusts</a> miss out and, in fact, few of the 46 with a 10-year record even come close. Artemis VCT is perhaps the nearest.</p>
<p>Their high costs make it harder for them to compete when you don&#8217;t consider their upfront and ongoing tax benefits. And with more restrictive conditions on what they can invest in, I wouldn&#8217;t count on their overall performance improving over the next decade.</p>
<h2>Honourable mentions</h2>
<p>Let&#8217;s look at some trusts that very nearly made the list, with one double and one gain in excess of 80%.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2020/01/mid-wynd-international/">Mid Wynd International</a> from the Global sector, which I looked at last week, is one of these.</p>
<p>A few more smaller company funds &#8212; Herald, North Atlantic Smaller Companies, and Montanaro &#8212; fall into this camp.</p>
<p>Alexander Darwell&#8217;s European Opportunities, which I must get round to looking at soon, is another.</p>
<p>Both 3i Group and 3i Infrastructure come achingly close, as does <a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2019/09/tr-property-real-estate-superstar/">TR Property</a>.</p>
<p>From UK general trusts, <a href="https://www.itinvestor.co.uk/2018/10/independent-investment-trust-the-fever-subsides/">Independent Investment Trust</a>, Nick Train&#8217;s Finsbury Income &; Growth, JPMorgan MidCap, and Mercantile are all worthy of a mention.</p>
<p>With the exception of Train&#8217;s fund, these all specialise in small/mid caps, again adding to my <del>confirmation bias</del> feeling that this is a sector worth following.</p>
<h2>Strong finishers</h2>
<p>Having created this data set, I feel duty-bound to torture it a little bit more.</p>
<p>So let&#8217;s look at a few trusts that started the decade with a poor run of form but finished in spectacular style.</p>
<p>Baring Emerging Europe and JPMorgan Russian delivered a decline of 30/40% in the first five years but then doubled and trebled respectively.</p>
<p>Manchester &; London also turned a small loss into a near treble. Monks, also from the Global sector, was much improved in the second half of the decade.</p>
<h2>Must try harder</h2>
<p>To finish, a few selected from those that sprinted off the line and then pulled up.</p>
<p>Edinburgh Investment Trust and Perpetual Income &; Growth, managed for most of the decade by Mark Barnett, are standouts. It&#8217;s easy to forget that these funds more than doubled your money from 2010 to 2014, but have done little better than a savings account since then.</p>
<p>The UK Equity Income sector features strongly, with the likes of Lowland and Law Debenture, plus a few other smaller funds, struggling these past few years.</p>
<p>Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies, Biotech Growth, and Strategic Equity Capital are other former high flyers that have had a pedestrian semi-decade.</p>
<h2>Treble doublers?</h2>
<p>If possible, I&#8217;ll try to revisit this list in five years from now, to see if any of the 20 can do the treble.</p>
<p>Much will depend on how the wider market does but I&#8217;ll make a wild guess that somewhere between 8 and 12 might make it.</p>
 
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<p>Nothing on this website should be regarded as a buy or sell recommendation as I'm just a random person writing a blog in his spare time and I am not authorised to give financial advice. Always do your own research and seek financial advice if necessary!</p>
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