I've just liquidated all but two tiny holdings (the results of spinoff companies where the holdings are too small to justify even dealing) in the AIM portfolio I've been running in an ISA for some years, with the intention of offsetting IHT. For a while it did very well, and of course it was fun, with holdings including LTG, ABDP, JDG, RNWH, Bioventix and YouGov, and also disasters such as BooHoo. But the AIM is stuffed. Companies are leaving it, the IHT allowance has been halved by the present government, and despite the strong growth in equities these past three months including smaller companies in the main markets, the shares in the AIM pf have been spiralling downwards. It may be that in the next tax year things steady up, but the AIM was already iffy and I've had enough. I reckon I'm fortunate to get out with a 1.8% profit overall - over several years, too.

I'll be reinvesting in conventional holdings in that ISA

AIM has provided the bulk of my outperformance for the past 3-4 years. The trick is not to stay invested, not until there is a certain opportunity. The longer you hold the longer stuff can get hit. Some super high quality companies like AET being the most recent. Before then ALPH that got promoted. Hopefully GAMA this year (though down almost 6% as I build a position). Experience of loosing money absolutely matters.

One of the issues, and with this one for me, is that for many, we don't find these good companies until they have popped. This is probably the key issue, how do we look through all the rubbish. Filters can help, it's how I found a few but sometimes they are not yet profitable. We then have to wait for years in order to find an entry.