Together our four commodity stocks have gained 18.2pc in total-return terms.

Our second-best store of wealth has proved to be gold, 13pc higher since we made it one of our inaugural holdings in April 2021. However, we bought it as one part of a two-component basket of wealth preservation assets ancient and modern, the latter being Bitcoin.

The cryptocurrency has lost 31pc since our purchase but because we bought four times as much gold the two taken in aggregate have gained 4.4pc. Our index-linked gilts have also broadly met expectations thanks to a 2.2pc rise.

Our four bond funds collectively have risen by 3.3pc once the interest received is taken into account.

Unfortunately the good work done by the assets mentioned so far has been undone by our other choices, namely individual shares and what we called “uncorrelated assets”.

Our eight-strong stock portfolio has been the portfolio’s worst performer with a 13pc fall in total return terms. Spirax‑Sarco, Smart Metering Systems, WH Smith, Admiral, RWS and Currys have all lost more than 10pc; Diageo and Auto Trader have made modest, single-digit gains. Questor cannot see an obvious reason why our particular stock choices would have performed so poorly and we retain faith in them to do well over the long term.

The four “uncorrelated” assets we chose, which we expected to rise and fall independently of the broader stock market, have in fact all fallen, by amounts between 4pc and 13pc. Worldwide Healthcare is responsible for that latter figure; the sector has been out of favour as the world recovers from the pandemic.

Our four property and infrastructure investment trusts have collectively lost 0.6pc including dividends; their contribution has been hit by the 20pc fall in Triple Point Social Housing since it was added to the portfolio. A similar fund has come under attack from short-sellers and some investors are concerned about possible regulatory action.

Broadly speaking, the portfolio has reacted to inflation and war as we would expect: commodities and safe-haven assets have offset losses (in nominal terms at least) elsewhere.

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