Personal Anecdotes: Year-End Trading Challenges

This week’s episode is the Christmas Party Special. The tone is festive, but the market conversation is anything but fluffy.

Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham reflect on a volatile end to the year, asking whether the long-awaited Santa Rally is simply late… or quietly getting back on track. With US markets lagging, tech wobbling, commodities rallying and rate cuts finally landing, the team cut through the noise to focus on one thing: how investors should be positioning for 2026, and what actually matters from here.



Expect market history, sharp portfolio insight, a few war stories from the trading floor, and more than a few Christmas crackers.

This Week’s Highlights

🎅 Santa Rally Watch

Markets wobble into year-end, but improving inflation and rate cuts raise hopes of a late festive surge.

📉 Tech Reality Check

AI poster children stumble as capital spending rises faster than revenues, raising questions about valuation and patience.

🇺🇸 US Market Lag

For once, the US underperforms global peers, forcing investors to rethink weightings and concentration risk.

⛏️ Commodity Comeback

Gold, copper and mining stocks shine as rate cuts, a softer dollar and China stimulus expectations lift hard assets.

🏦 Rates Finally Falling

The Bank of England cuts rates as inflation cools, while US data strengthens the case for further easing in 2026.

🎄 Year-End Games

The team lift the lid on how professional investors manage portfolios, and sometimes “massage” prices, into year-end.

Portfolio Snapshot

Weekly performance: -0.89%

Total return since inception: +10.06%

Top Performers:

🥇 iShares Physical Gold ETC: +2.53%

🥈 BlackRock World Mining Trust: +2.26%

🥉 Vanguard FTSE 250 ETF: +1.64%

Underperformers:

🪙 VanEck Crypto & Blockchain Innovators ETF: –15.34%

📉 Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 ETF: –3.59%

🇯🇵 iShares Nikkei 225 ETF: –2.67%

Big Questions the Team Debate

• Is the Santa Rally delayed, or quietly forming?

• Are tech valuations finally being stress-tested?

• Should investors reduce US concentration after years of dominance?

• Is copper now more compelling than gold?

• How should portfolios really be reviewed at year-end?

What You’ll Learn

✔️ Why markets often rally after bad news, not before

✔️ How professional investors think about year-end positioning

✔️ Why commodities thrive when rates fall and currencies weaken

✔️ How to audit your portfolio properly over Christmas

✔️ Why long-term investors shouldn’t fear all-time highs

📈 Download the full Portfolio Performance Slides

View the portfolio breakdown: here

📧 Get in touch: theartofinvesting@ig.com

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Disclaimer

This podcast is provided for educational and informational purposes only. The content presented is not intended as personal investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any particular securities or investments. All discussions regarding the model portfolio are illustrative and for educational purposes.

Your capital is at risk. The value of shares, ETFs and ETCs can fall as well as rise, which could mean getting back less than you originally put in.

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