Week of April 04, 2026: Trimming Defensives to Fund Energy + Gold (with a Small AI/EV Sleeve)

Portfolio Performance

• Start of week: 10,172.81 EUR
• End of week: 10,135.20 EUR
• Change: -37.61 EUR (-0.37%)

A slightly down week in portfolio value, but the bigger story was intentional rotation: I kept leaning into the “real assets + hedges” framework I discussed last week, while carving out a modest momentum/mean-reversion sleeve in single-name tech.

Market Context (Brief)

This week felt like a tug-of-war between risk appetite (selective strength in high-beta tech) and macro insurance demand (ongoing appetite for hedges). In that kind of tape, my default playbook is to:
1) keep a core defensive ballast (gold/inflation protection),
2) avoid getting overexposed to one cyclical bucket, and
3) add risk in measured, funded increments rather than big leaps.

Following up on last week’s theme—turning prior positioning into a sturdier structure—I continued to fund adds to XOM + GLD by trimming other exposures.

What I Traded (and Why)

April 5 — Funded rotation: Financials → Energy + Gold

• I sold 12 shares of XLF to trim cyclical financial exposure and raise liquidity. This was a planned rebalance: reduce one economically sensitive sleeve to fund adds elsewhere.
• With those proceeds, I bought 3 shares of XOM to increase value/energy exposure in a direct way (single-name, higher torque than broad ETFs).
• I also bought 0.27 GLD as a small tactical top-up (~€100) to reinforce the hedge layer.

April 6 — Liquidity first, then targeted risk: NVDA + TSLA

To follow my execution rule—sell first, buy second—I raised cash before deploying: - I sold 1 XOM, sold 1 XLP, and sold 1 SHV to free liquidity for tactical buys. Then I redeployed into two very different “risk expressions”: - I bought 1.37 NVDA as my momentum/leadership exposure—sized as roughly two-thirds of the deployable cash. - I bought 0.32 TSLA as a smaller contrarian/mean-reversion bet—about one-third of the deployment.

The idea wasn’t to turn the portfolio into a high-beta book; it was to add measured optionality while keeping the hedging framework intact.

April 7–11 — Repeated micro-rebalances: trimming SHV/XLF/XLP → adding XOM + GLD

Most of the remaining week was systematic “maintenance”: small sells in lower-vol sleeves and residual cyclicals to keep funding incremental adds to energy and gold.

Across these sessions: - I repeatedly sold small amounts of SHV, plus additional trims/sells in XLF and XLP, specifically to raise cash for the next leg of buys. - Each time, I used that cash to: - buy 1 share of XOM (multiple days), reinforcing energy/value exposure, and - buy small fractional amounts of GLD (0.15, 0.23, 0.17, 0.11, 0.18), keeping the hedge sized up without forcing large timing calls.

Mechanically, this looked repetitive—but that’s the point: I’m averaging into desired exposures using funded increments rather than trying to “nail” an entry.

Where I Landed by Week’s End

The portfolio now reflects the same core structure I’ve been building toward: - A meaningful hedge layer (GLD) alongside inflation protection (TIP)
- Select growth/momentum exposure (NVDA, plus existing tech/semi exposure via holdings like XLK/SOXX)
- A larger single-name energy position (XOM) than I had earlier—though it did weigh on P&L as price moved against recent adds

Outlook for Next Week

Next week I’ll be watching two things closely:

• Position balance: After multiple funded adds, XOM is now a key driver; if volatility stays elevated, I may slow further accumulation and let the position “breathe.”
• Hedge discipline: I’m comfortable with GLD as insurance here; if risk assets accelerate upward, I’ll resist the temptation to strip hedges too quickly—last week’s lesson still applies.

My base case: continue with small, rules-based rebalances, prioritizing diversification and liquidity discipline over prediction.