I wouldn't say we should necessarily be sure to have a positive...

I wouldn't say we should necessarily be sure to have a positive month in a down month like October. The problem is that Justin said himself these down months is where they tend to generate returns. So this is simply based off the message management is delivering in the recent presentation.

Aside from that the disappointment stems from not necessarily that they didn't post a positive return. As Yort points out excluding the free kick from a heap of shares bought back they managed to lose over 2%. If that pattern continued we are talking negative 25% in a year from stock picking assuming they remain at net exposure of zero.

Whilst the buyback hasn't closed the discount it has still managed to prevent the discount from being a fair bit wider I would imagine. It also has the potential to add a couple of percent to NTA in a given year, quite significant in terms of their recent performance!

Current discount might be about 14-15% but perhaps if they were not so aggressive with the buyback in the last month it could be 20%.

Personally I think one Watermark LIC that is always market neutral that chooses the best long short ideas from either the ASX or globally is more than sufficient. Whilst Justin says he spends the whole day back now focused on the ASX, I find it hard to imagine that 3 different LICs where holders are annoyed wouldn't be a distraction.