Performance

Shareholder Yield Letter: 3-Year Track Record

Track record as of 30 June 2026. Last reviewed July 2026.

This page shows you the track record of the Shareholder Yield Letter over just more than three years, from May 2023. 131 real income large company investment ideas, every company bought and sold in the real market, in real time.

This is the whole record, in Euros and in US Dollars, the good and the bad, with the income it paid along the way. Nothing is hidden and nothing is cherry-picked.

This is the published record of a research newsletter, general information, not personalised advice about your money. We run these same rules in our own portfolio every month.

3 years (May 2023 – Jun 2026)	In euros	In US dollars
Shareholder Yield: €100,000 / $100,000 grew to	€144,219	$159,819
of which dividends collected and reinvested	€17,024	$17,456
Shareholder Yield, total return	+44.2%	+59.8%
Shareholder Yield, a year	12.4%	16.2%
World Index, total return	+68.3%	+80.3%
World Index, a year	18.1%	20.7%
Shareholder Yield: worst fall along the way	-7.5%	-6.2%
World Index: worst fall along the way	-21.2%	-16.9%

What your money did

A real €100,000 that followed the newsletter from launch in May 2023 became €144,219 by 30 June 2026. A real $100,000 became $159,819.

That is 12.4% a year in euros and 16.2% a year in dollars, with dividends reinvested.

Of that growth, €17,024 came in as cash dividends and was reinvested. Real income paid while you held.

A broad World Index returned more over these three years, 18.1% a year in euros. This was a strong run for the big global indices, and a value-and-income strategy in large companies did not keep pace. What it did instead was a much smaller fall when markets dropped, and steady 6% income.

Year to date, the first half of 2026, the portfolio is up 5.7% in euros and 5.0% in dollars. The dip on the right of the chart is a pullback from the February 2026 high, not a loss for the year. It shows in both the euro and the dollar line, so it is the market easing back, not a currency move.

Click to enlarge.

Over three years you earned a solid return and a real income, and you slept through the falls that make other investors sell at the worst time.

The bad and the ugly, first

Most performance pages show you the winners and bury the losers. We do it the other way round.

The worst single idea, B&M European Value Retail, lost 40%. It is the deepest loss in the whole record. The 20% trailing stop-loss on every position is why the deep ones stay rare: of 131 ideas, only 1 ever lost more than 40%, and only 7 lost more than 20%.

The worst the whole portfolio ever fell, top to bottom, was 7.5% in euros and 6.2% in dollars.

Over the same three years the World Index fell about 21% in euros and 17% in dollars. In the spring 2025 selloff, a €100,000 in the index dropped by €21,000 on paper. In the newsletter it dropped about €17,500.

The risk, in plain numbers	In euros	In US dollars
Worst fall, peak to trough	-7.5%	-6.2%
World Index, worst fall over the same 3 years	-21.2%	-16.9%
Worst single month	-4.5%	-4.7%
Volatility a year (ups and downs)	8.2%	8.8%
Months that made money	67.6%	75.7%

The chart shows you the newsletter gives up some of the fastest upside for a much smaller drop. In real money and real nerves, that is the better half of the bargain I am sure you will agree.

A strategy built for income and stability

The average idea pays about 6% a year in dividends before withholding taxes (all returns shown ignoring withholding taxes). Across the whole portfolio, €17,024 in dividends came in on a €100,000 portfolio over three years ($17,456 on $100,000), and every euro of it was reinvested for these return calculations.

The companies are large. Average company size is €45.8 billion, so liquidity is never a problem. This means the newsletter fits tax-free retirement accounts where broker options are often limited.

Positions are meant to be held for years. The portfolio holds 57 companies today, each capped at a 2% starting size, each carrying the 20% trailing stop.

Income and stability	Figure
Average dividend yield across all ideas	about 6%
Dividends collected and reinvested on €100,000	€17,024
Average company size	€45.8 billion
Companies held today	57
Trailing stop-loss on every position, since launch	20%

Click to enlarge.

The income does two jobs. It pays you while you wait, and it steadies your portfolio when markets wobble.

What the track record says

The three years above are the live track record. The strategy behind it, shareholder yield using the universe of the world's largest companies (O'Shaughnessy's Market Leaders), has been tested back about 80 years. In that backtest it beat the market 97% of the time over long holding periods.

A backtest is a test on history, not money that was invested, so we keep it separate from the live figures on purpose. But 80 years is a long test, and it is the reason the strategy was chosen.

The strategy, tested (backtest, not live)	Figure
Years of history tested	about 80
Probability of beating the market over the long run	about 97%
Universe	very large companies (Market Leaders)

The three live years tell you how it feels to use the strategy. Eight decades of testing tell you why the rules are built this way.

Three real years, in both currencies

Here are the two full calendar year returns 2024 and 2025 since launch (May 2023), the newsletter against the World Index, both with dividends, measured the same way.

Click to enlarge.

2024 the index performed better. World shares had a strong year (think Magnificent 7), and the newsletter, holding cheaper large companies, returned 18.9% in euros while the index returned 26.9%.

2025 went the other way. The newsletter returned 12.6% in euros against the index's 6.8%, and in dollars 39.4% against 21.0%.

The difference between the two currency charts is the exchange rate, not the strategy. The euro and the dollar drifted apart over these years, so the same result are different depending on the currency.

Put a calm income strategy to work in your own portfolio

The Shareholder Yield Letter sends up to 3 new ideas a month in large companies, each with the buy price, the 2% position size and the 20% trailing stop already worked out. About 30 minutes a month to run it.

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100% money-back guarantee for the first 30 days.

The good

Now the wins, measured the way we measure single ideas: the price change plus dividends, in each company's home currency.

The average idea returned 21.9%, and about two in three made money. Among the moves over 20%, winners beat losers by more than seven to one. A handful more than doubled: CaixaBank returned 169%, Barclays 151%, British American Tobacco 115%.

None of it came from one market. The ideas are spread across Europe, North America, and Asia, in banks, energy, tobacco, telecoms and carmakers, the kind of large, cash-generative companies that pay a real dividend.

Every idea since May 2023 (home currency)	Result
Investment ideas published	131
Average return per idea	+21.9%
Median return per idea	+12.0%
Ideas that made money	68%
Winners vs losers (over 20%)	7.3 to 1
Best idea (CaixaBank)	+169.1%
Worst idea (B&M European Value Retail)	-40.3%
Average holding period so far	about 1 year

Click to enlarge.

A high hit rate on big, cash-paying companies is exactly what an income strategy is supposed to produce. Also the trailing stop loss keeps losses small as you can see the tail to the left of 0 to 10 is a lot shorter than the positive return tail to the right of it.

What this track record is

This is the published record of a newsletter's ideas. It is general information, not personalised advice, and nothing here is a recommendation about your situation. We run these same rules in our own portfolio, every month.

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Prices move, and you can lose money.

Every idea is recommended with a 12-month time horizon. Returns include dividends and are shown before any dealing costs or tax.

World Index means a broad index of large and medium-sized company shares across 23 developed markets, measured with dividends reinvested in the currency shown. The full definition is at the foot of this page.

Start with the next Shareholder Yield issue

You have seen the whole record, the income, and the drops. If a calm, rules-based way to earn income from large companies fits how you want to invest, the next monthly issue is the place to begin.

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Would you rather read an issue first? Click the Need help? button at the bottom right of your screen and ask for a Shareholder Yield trial issue, and we will send you a recent one to review.

What “World Index” means and how returns were calculated

“World Index” here means a broad index ETF of large and medium-sized company shares across 23 developed stock markets, about 1,400 companies. The figures use a real, investable ETF fund that tracks it, with dividends reinvested after withholding tax, priced in US dollars and converted to euros at daily exchange rates, over the newsletter’s life from 16 May 2023 to 30 June 2026.

Using a real fund makes the comparison like-for-like with the newsletter: both include dividends, both are what an investor could have held. Newsletter figures are the published buy-and-hold record: each idea bought at a 2% starting position on the issue date, sold on the sell date, dividends reinvested, no new buys while a region's market is below its 200-day average, a 20% trailing stop-loss on every position, converted to each currency at daily rates.

The newsletter portfolio builds up from its first issue as ideas are published, so its money goes to work in small steps over the first year rather than all on day one; the World Index is measured as a single sum invested at the start. Figures are before dealing costs and taxes.