Investing in ASX shares can be a wonderful experience. Putting your money into assets that grow and compound your wealth over time is like watching a small seed grow into a giant oak tree, only far more enjoyable and useful (in my opinion). Most of us investors are happy to get a return of 10%, 15% or 20% a year, depending on your risk profile and/or investing strategy. But some ASX shares do far better than that.
There are (ironically) 13 lucky shares on the ASX that have returned 100% or more to their investors year to date, going off of today's share prices. That means anyone who bought or owned these shares on 2 January 2020 (the markets are closed for New Year's Day on 1 January) would have doubled up their money or better, as of right now.
Here they are, together with their year-to-date returns on current pricing:
| ASX share | Year to date return (as of 25 November) |
| De Grey Mining Limited (ASX: DEG) | 1,871% |
| Chalice Gold Mines Limited (ASX: CHN) | 1,553% |
| Redbubble Ltd (ASX: RBL) | 359% |
| Temple & Webster Group Ltd (ASX: TPW) | 297% |
| Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) | 245% |
| Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX: PBH) | 158% |
| Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) | 154% |
| Macquarie Telecom Group Ltd (ASX: MAQ) | 133% |
| Bellevue Gold Ltd (ASX: BGL) | 129% |
| Objective Corporation Limited (ASX: OCL) | 119% |
| Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN) | 116% |
| Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL) | 116% |
| Mesoblast Limited (ASX: MSN) | 115% |
What can we learn from these ASX shares?
It's worth noting that year-to-date gains can be misleading. Sure, it looks as though lithium miner, Pilbara, has had a great year (which it has). But even at these levels, the Pilbara share price is still down more than 40% from its 2018 highs.
Moving on, we see some consistent themes in this list. Gold miners, for instance, feature heavily. They even take out the two top spots on the table – and by a considerable margin at that. Gold itself has also had a phenomenal year. It started 2020 at around US$1,519 an ounce, but is currently trading at US$1,811 after climbing to a new all-time high of US$2,061 an ounce earlier in the year. No wonder gold miners have done ok.
We also see some big e-commerce players in Afterpay, Redbubble, Temple & Webster, and Kogan. These companies have all done unquestionably well in 2020, fuelled in part by the dramatic shift towards online shopping that the pandemic accelerated. All three of these companies reported revenue growth in the double or triple digits in FY2020. We can probably throw online betting purveyor, Pointsbet, into that mix as well.
It just goes to show that even in a year full of unprecedented challenges, some companies can make lemonade with the lemons they're given.
