Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Review 2026: Has It Recovered?
- Alpesh Patel
- Apr 13
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 25
Scottish Mortgage is the most widely held investment trust in the UK. It is also one of the most divisive. It made investors extraordinary returns in the decade to 2021. It then lost more than half its value in 13 months. The question in 2026 is not whether it was a great investment in 2015. The question is whether it belongs in your portfolio now.
Managed by Baillie Gifford, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT) has been one of the defining investment stories of the 2010s. It built a concentrated portfolio of high-growth, often unlisted technology and disruptive businesses at a time when most investors were not looking at them.
The strategy worked spectacularly - until interest rates rose sharply and the entire growth/unprofitable technology complex collapsed. Scottish Mortgage fell harder than almost any comparable vehicle of its size.
Alpesh Patel OBE is a hedge fund manager, Bloomberg TV alumnus, Financial Times author, and former Visiting Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Scottish Mortgage is one of the most common holdings flagged in GIP portfolio reviews — and one of the most consistently misunderstood.
The Numbers: Where Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Stands in 2026
Peak price (November 2021): approximately 1,490p
Trough (October 2022): approximately 650p (-56%)
Current (April 2026): approximately 900–950p — partial recovery but still approximately 37% below peak
5-year return (April 2021–April 2026): approximately -20% to -25%
MSCI World 5-year return (same period): approximately +65–75%
Ongoing charges: 0.34% per year — very low for an actively managed trust
Discount to NAV: trading at a discount of approximately 10–15% to net asset value, which has been persistently wide since 2022
What Scottish Mortgage Actually Holds
The top listed holdings as of early 2026 include Nvidia, ASML, MercadoLibre, Moderna, and Ferrari. Approximately 25–30% of the portfolio is in unlisted private companies, including SpaceX, ByteDance (TikTok parent), and a range of earlier-stage businesses. The private holdings are valued using Baillie Gifford’s internal models rather than observable market prices which means the NAV may not fully reflect what the private stakes would fetch in a real sale.
SpaceX is one of the most valuable private companies in the world and is a genuinely significant holding. If SpaceX IPOs, Scottish Mortgage investors would benefit materially. This is one of the genuine bull cases for the trust at current prices: you are buying a portfolio that includes market-listed high-quality businesses alongside a significant allocation to SpaceX at a 10–15% discount to the estimated NAV.
The GIP Framework Assessment: Does Scottish Mortgage Pass?
The GIP framework screens individual stocks, not investment trusts. But applying the GIP logic to Scottish Mortgage as an asset produces a clear picture. On CROCI: the trust holds several high-CROCI businesses (Nvidia, ASML) alongside early-stage and unprofitable companies. The blended CROCI of the portfolio is pulled down by the private and growth-stage holdings. On PEG: at current prices, some holdings are reasonably valued; others remain very expensive relative to near-term earnings growth. On Calmar: a 56% maximum drawdown in 24 months is among the worst in the investment trust universe for a large, diversified vehicle.
On the Calmar screen alone, Scottish Mortgage would not currently pass the GIP filter. A 56% maximum drawdown is exactly the kind of risk profile the Calmar screen is designed to exclude because a SIPP investor who held Scottish Mortgage through 2021–2022 saw their retirement pot nearly halved in two years. For investors in or approaching drawdown, that is not an acceptable risk profile regardless of the recovery since.
Who Scottish Mortgage Is and Isn’t Right For
Could suit: Investors in their 30s or early 40s with a 20+ year horizon, who can tolerate very high volatility, and are specifically seeking concentrated exposure to private technology and disruptive growth businesses. As a small satellite holding (5–10% of a portfolio) alongside a GIP core, it is a defensible position.
Not suitable: Investors in their 50s or in/approaching drawdown. The 56% maximum drawdown is a retirement-altering event for anyone who cannot wait 3–5 years to recover. The GIP framework would not hold this as a core position at any stage.
The hidden cost of holding on: Investors who held through the 2021–2022 drawdown and are still holding have an opportunity cost question to answer. The MSCI World has returned approximately 70–80% since Scottish Mortgage’s trough. The trust has returned approximately 40–50% from the same trough. That gap represents the cost of waiting for recovery in a specific vehicle when the broader market has already moved significantly.
If Scottish Mortgage is in your SIPP or ISA and you want an independent assessment of whether it should stay, reduce, or be replaced with GIP Approved List holdings, book a free portfolio review here
Sources & Further Reading
Baillie Gifford — Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust: portfolio, charges, and factsheet (2026). bailliegifford.com
Association of Investment Companies — Scottish Mortgage discount to NAV history and sector comparison. theaic.co.uk
Financial Times — Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust: performance, holdings review and manager commentary 2026. ft.com
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. Price figures are approximate and subject to change. All investing carries risk. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. This does not constitute a personal recommendation to buy or sell any investment.
Alpesh Patel OBE