The hardest part of investing isn’t knowing what to do. It’s having the patience to keep doing it when nothing seems to be happening.
What works in investing usually feels uncomfortable. If it felt easy or obvious, it probably wouldn’t work for long.
We’ve learned that the hard way. Some ideas worked. Others didn’t.
The Progress didn’t come from being right all the time. It came from admitting what didn’t work and doing better next time.
Over time, our approach has evolved much like science does. You form a view. You test it in the real world. You listen to the data. And when the facts change, you refine your thinking.
The YFS Intelligent Wealth fund ended 2025 with an 11% gain—solid, though below our expectations, largely due to our US dollar exposure.
We view this not as a flaw, but as the cost of staying positioned for long-term compounding.
However, over the past three years, the YFS Intelligent Wealth Fund returned 64.4%, materially ahead of the benchmark.
Source: FE Analytics
Not by trading faster. Not by predicting headlines. But by doing something far less exciting and far more effective: owning a small number of exceptional businesses with durable structural forces and letting time do the heavy lifting.
Also, by taking a long-term view, you have a better chance of outperforming the market.
What Worked — and Why
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares has a simple lesson most businesses miss.
The struggling restaurants usually aren’t failing because they lack choice — they’re failing because they’re trying to do too much.
They pack the menu with endless dishes, hoping something will stick. What actually happens is lower quality, stressed kitchens, and confused customers.
Ramsay’s fix? He cuts the menu down to a few standout options, making them great.
Less choice. Better execution. Everything improves.
Investing works the same way.
When you own too many investments, you’re often holding a lot of average businesses and missing out on the few outstanding ones that actually drive long-term returns.
As Warren Buffett put it, “Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth.”
When we own businesses like Alphabet, MercadoLibre, Arista Networks, Shopify, or Nova, we are backing scale advantages, embedded infrastructure, and teams with long-term vision and alignment.
These businesses don’t need perfect conditions to succeed. Their position within the ecosystem does the work for them.
- Nova Ltd benefited from the physics of progress—semiconductors only move forward by becoming more precise.
- Arista Networks became the core infrastructure for a world addicted to cloud and data.
- Shopify continued empowering millions of entrepreneurs while the market obsessed over short-term sentiment.
- Alphabet Inc. proved that owning the toll roads of the digital economy—search, data, AI infrastructure and more. It still compounds extraordinarily well.
- MercadoLibre did what great companies always do: solved difficult infrastructure problems in fast-growing markets.
None of these wins were about timing the market. They were about time in the market and believing that a few companies really can change the shape of the world.
History backs this up. Since 1926, just 4% of stocks created half of all U.S. stock market wealth.
A global study later showed it’s even more extreme: 2.4% of companies created nearly all long-term wealth.
The lesson isn’t to diversify ideas endlessly—it’s to recognise how rare greatness is and to hold onto it when you find it.
Why We Invest Differently
Historical evidence from equity markets shows that a small minority of companies create the majority of long-term value.
If wealth creation is concentrated, then broad ownership of average businesses reduces exposure to extraordinary ones.
Therefore, we focus on mega forces that are durable and expanding; then, companies embedded in them will likely grow over long periods.
That’s why we focus on:
- Businesses with durable scale and cash flow
- Leaders with vision and skin in the game
- Structures that resist short-term pressure
We don’t need to own everything. We need to own the right things and hold them through discomfort.
Our goal has never been to predict the next unicorn. It’s to own businesses that will still matter years from now. Businesses led by people who are patient, adaptive, and focused on the long term.
Awet Ghirmay, Head of Investment Research
If you want to learn more about this topic, please find the link here.
More information about our fund can be found here: Hargreaves Lansdown or AJ Bell.
Risk warnings
The value of investments and the income derived from them may fall as well as rise. You may not get back what you invest. This communication is for general information only and is not intended to be individual advice. You are recommended to seek competent professional advice before taking any action. All statements concerning the tax treatment of products and their benefits are based on our understanding of current tax law and HM Revenue and Customs practice. Levels and bases of tax relief are subject to change. This blog is based on my own observations and opinions.
