Review of 2015

I've been very boring over the last 12 months.  I made one purchase, way back in January, buying a small number of shares in F.W.Thorpe, a British lighting manufacturer. At least I made it a good one - they rose from 136p to 241p over the year, paying a dividend of 3.6p along the way. I also sold my BP shares at 403p for a small profit, worried about what the sliding oil price would mean for them.  They now stand at 354p, so I can count both transactions a success.  Other than that I've sat on my backside and done nothing.

Overall my portfolio has ended up in the black over the year, but only just - up 0.6% (a capital loss of 1.6% outweighed by dividends).  I marginally beat the FTSE 100.

Here's how my shares have done:

• F.W.Thorpe was the star performed with 81%.
• NatWest Preference shares did well with 8.6%.
• IS15 made 1.8%.
• BP fell 2% in January before I sold it.
• Berkshire Hathaway bring up the rear with a loss of 7.6%.

Sadly I have 10 times as much invested in Berkshire Hathaway as I do in F.W.Thorpe - if the positions were reversed I'd have made 28% this year.