Review of 2013

2013 is dead, long live 2014!  A review of the last year is in order.

Overall performance
I was happy with my returns in 2013, but I underperformed the FTSE fairly significantly.  Overall my portfolio was up 13.9%, 3.3% in dividends and 10.6% capital gain.  By comparison the FTSE 100 returned 17.9%: 14.4% in capital gain plus about 3.5% (estimated) in dividends.

Trades during the year
I had a quiet year - I got fed up of holding cash mid-way through the year and put it into a corporate bond ETF (IS15) so that I could earn a bit of income while sitting on it, but that was my only trade.

Winners and losers
The outstanding performed in my portfolio was Berkshire Hathaway, up a resounding 29%.  BP managed a respectable 18% including dividends.  The laggards were NWBD (5%), TSCO (5%) and IS15 (3%).

Positioning for 2014
I'm not planning to make any immediate changes.  The portfolio is fairly defensive at the moment, with 25% in corporate bonds (IS15) and 16% in NatWest Preference Shares (NWBD).  33% is in Berkshire Hathaway, which no longer looks massively undervalued, but doesn't look too expensive either.  18% is in Tesco, which continues to look cheap in my opinion.  7.5% is in BP and I may sell this at some point if the price looks right - I don't particularly want to be invested in big oil long-term.