2021 ASX Alphabet Challenge

We’ve just entered a new year and that calls for an update on my ASX Alphabet Challenge! Due to my interest in the Australian market and learning more about investing, I challenge myself each year to create a fictional fund of 26 ASX listed stocks, one stock code for every letter of the alphabet. The 2021 challenge will end on the 31st of December 2021.

This is purely for entertainment/personal education purposes, and does not in any way constitute actionable insights or ideas. I have previously completed this challenge in both 2019 and 2020.

Performance Report

My 2020 portfolio finished the year just about where it started — which was interesting considering how strongly the market performed. However, if we include dividends of $456.36, the overall performance was 1.68% (much different from my 2019 portfolio performance). My best performer in 2020 was FDV (102.45%) and my worst performer was GTK (-62.19%).

As an aside, my 2019 ATOZ Fund is now sitting at $43,736 (with one company delisted through a private equity takeover). That’s a overal return of around 76% (probably missing a dividend or two from the delisted company in that calculation).

The Rules of The Game

I have equally weighted $1,000 (rounded down) to each stock, with the starting value of the portfolio not exceeding $26,000. The companies are all listed on the ASX and I am not able to make any trades during the year, regardless of what happens to the company.

There are no other restrictions on which stocks I choose; any market cap, industry and P/E ratio. LICs/REITs/ETFs are all open for business! To make it easier I’m also disregarding brokerage for the purposes of this experiment.

My Chosen Companies

To get started I have added all of my 26 stocks to a hypothetical portfolio using the free InvestSMART Portfolio Manager tool, and have set the purchase price as the close price for each stock on the 31st of December 2020. The list of stocks for my ‘ATOZ Capital Fund’ are as follows:

AEF — Australian Ethical Investment Limited

BKG — Booktopia Group Limited

CAJ — Capitol Health Limited

DDR — Dicker Data Limited

EVS — EnviroSuite Limited

F100 — BetaShares FTSE 100 ETF

GOAT — VanEck Vectors Morningstar World ex Australia Wide Moat ETF

HM1 — Hearts and Minds Investments Ltd

IIND — BetaShares India Quality ETF

JIN — Jumbo Interactive Limited

KME — Kip McGrath Education Centres Limited

LVT — Livetiles Limited

MCP — McPherson’s Limited

NEA — Nearmap Ltd

OCL — Objective Corporation Limited

PPH — Pushpay Holdings Limited

QFE — QuickFee Limited

RUL — RPMGlobal Holdings Limited

SWF — SelfWealth Limited

TCL — Transurban Group

UBN — Urbanise.Com Limited

VHT — Volpara Health Technologies Limited

WOR — Worley Limited

XRF — XRF Scientific Limited

YMAX — Betashares Aus Top20 Equity Yield Max Fund

Z1P — Zip Co Limited

If you replicate this challenge, I’d love to hear your selections and how you fare, all in the name of entertainment and learning!

Happy New Year!

Kate