Why I'm now convinced MND is a compelling buy, page-15

Thanks for your replies @MarsC, there are very few genuine and wise posters on these forums.

I was quite disheartened to see that both yours and madamswers returns are sub 20% pa on the other thread, as clearly you both get a lot of calls right.  This does however reinforce my suspicion/belief that the only way to outsize returns consistently are by spending more time on portfolio allocation and position sizing to generate the outsized returns (which I feel I tend to do naturally, although I am now consciously ordering my best ideas and re-assessing them quarterly).  I haven't been properly tracking or auditing performance until the last 18 months, and I aim certainly aiming to achieve greater than the above in the longer term to continue to justify ongoing direct share investment.  Although I know many fundamental investors disagree with market timing, I also feel that the jury is out on whether this is a factor (many successful fund managers do appear to use elements of timing to aid decisions), and it certainly does influence the timing (to some extent) of my buy decisions, if not the decision itself.

The bigger question I have is, how can you justify direct share investment and the effort and time (and risk involved), if your returns are not substantially greater than the markets? And if they are a few bps above the index, is it justifiable to go with direct investment rather than going with fund managers who appear to have found an alpha (eg Regal who you both invest with/have looked at). Or if worried about risk with one manager, spread across multiple fund managers with an apparent alpha (assuming you have the wealth to pursue these options in terms of minimum investments)?  I have learnt a lot from the markets and continue to do so, and have achieved a more than acceptable rate of return so far, and am willing to give more time to complete or at least augment my financial education as within the context of my life the financial literacy gained from this exposure is likely to compound in numerous ways on the opportunities that will come my way, but I do often wonder about these things and will continually re-assess.

PS I have upvoted a post you may want to have removed to help preserve your anonymity.