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You say that you’ve beaten the all-share index, but it seems like a better comparison would be small-company funds. In my case I’ve felt that I don’t want to put the effort in to researching lots of companies so I’ve used the JPM Smaller Companies investment trust as my exposure to that part of the market – I bought at 208 in 1999 and the price is now 968, so about 11% a year including dividends which doesn’t seem too bad, and your 5.7 times over 19 years comes out a bit less …
The All-Share is the best benchmark because my portfolio includes both large and small companies. To focus solely on small caps, would increase the risk profile of my portfolio considerably. Smaller companies have done very well in the last few years but that is not always the case. Certainly if you don’t want to spend the time to research smaller companies, then a trust such as the one you mentioned is a good choice (as part of a portfolio).