April 2026 Blotter Highlights
Liberation Day Redux — Chaos, Conviction, and a Comeback
Pinebrook returned +4.02% versus the S&P500 performance of +10.42% for the month of April, resulting in -6.4% in monthly underperformance.
YTD through April 30, 2026, Pinebrook stands at +6.58% versus the S&P 500 YTD return of +5.31%, representing 127 basis points of outperformance in 2026.
Since inception, the portfolio has generated a 78.11 % cumulative return versus 34.83% for the S&P 500, for 4,328 basis points of outperformance since the strategy launched in August of 2024.
The Setup: Tariff Shock, Vol Spike, and the Playbook
April began where March left off: in a headline-driven market with elevated implied volatility, a degrossed book, and an active geopolitical and macro backdrop.
The month’s defining event came on April 7th, when President Trump delivered his Taco. The Pinebrook home team did not hesitate. A wide net was cast, and risk was deployed indiscriminately across the board.
Heros:
April 5 & 7: Long December 2026 oil futures COZ6.
April 7: Long SPX futures ESM6, EWY, TSM, EFA, DXJ, EEM.
April 7: Long gold micro-futures, MGCM6.
April 10-14: Long SPY, ESM6.
April 10 – 16: Short U.S. 10-yr note futures, ZN.
April 16 – 22: Short Europe and Asia, EFA and IEUR.
The EWY position was a home run, with a 20.56% return by month end.
Zeros:
April 10-14: Long gold miners GDX & GDXJ.
April 5 & 7: Long June 2026 oil futures COM6.
Pinebrook was stopped out from COM6 on Friday, April 17th and low of the day after a Cheeto tweet. The risk into the weekend outweighed the implied shiny toy model targets.
The result: -335bps PNL hit on the hard loss, and an additional 100bps on foregone profits if the futures contracts would have been held till expiration.
Woulda, shouda, could have. It’s cope of course.
