April 2026 Portfolio Update: New High, IWDA Lesson
Atrahasis Portfolio Key Numbers (1 May 2026)
| Period return (excluding contributions) | 5.8% | Market Move/Starting Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Starting balance (1 Apr) | S$2,935,939.97 | |
| Purchases | S$15,356.00 | |
| Sales proceeds | 0 | |
| Market move | +S$170,207.07 | Endbal - Startbal - Purchases + Sales |
| Dividends Received | S$5,038.28 | |
| Ending balance (30 Apr) | S$3,121,503.05 | |
| Bridge Cash Bucket (BCB) | S$165,000/$420,000 | (39 % funded) |
| Dividend tap | S$4,536.30 /mth | (90.7% of Target) |
| Total (Including BCB) | S$3,286,503.05 |
Note: Dividend tap refers to the portfolio average monthly dividend which is estimated from Snowball Analytics.
Welcome to my April 2026 Portfolio Update. April was a good month.
The Atrahasis Portfolio closed at S$3,121,503.05, a new month-end high. Including the Bridge Cash Bucket, the total stood at S$3,286,503.05.
I am happy about that.
Not because the portfolio is suddenly safe from drawdowns. It is not. But after March’s decline, it is nice to see the portfolio recover, move past the previous high, and keep the overall plan intact.
Early May has continued to move in the right direction, but I will leave that for the next update.
Purchases (1–30 Apr)
| Holding | Units | Approx amount | Sleeve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parkway Life REIT / C2PU | 1,500 | S$5,883 | Country Tilts |
| CapitaLand Ascendas REIT / A17U | 2,200 | S$5,170 | Country Tilts |
| NetLink NBN Trust / CJLU | 4,300 | S$4,303 | Country Tilts |
| Total | S$15 356 |
April 2026 Portfolio Update: Recovery After the March Drop
March’s market move was about -S$129.8k!
That was roughly a 4.3% decline from the March starting balance. It was not a disaster, but it was large enough to feel real. At this portfolio size, a normal drawdown can still look like a very large number.
April then moved the other way.
The April market move was +S$170.2k, which more than recovered the March decline. Across March and April together, price movement was still positive by about S$40.5k.
That is the main story this month.
The portfolio did not avoid volatility. It went down, stayed invested, recovered, collected dividends, and finished at a new high.
Market Backdrop: Strong Rebound, Still Complicated
April was a strong month for global equities. Reuters reported that the S&P 500 recorded its biggest monthly percentage gain since November 2020, while the Nasdaq had its largest monthly gain since April 2020. The rebound came even as oil and geopolitical risk remained in the background.
Rates remained part of the story too. The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark rate at 3.50%–3.75% on 29 April, but the decision had four dissents, its most divided vote since 1992.
Singapore was steadier. The STI ended April at 4,912.69, up 0.56% over the month and 27.76% year-on-year.
Benchmark Check: First Quarter Defence, April Recovery
Because this is the first proper quarter-plus of tracking the portfolio in this form, I wanted to compare it against a few simple benchmarks.
For the benchmark check, I am using price-index returns, not total-return indexes. In other words, the benchmark numbers exclude dividends. That makes the cleanest comparison against the Atrahasis market-move return. I also show the Atrahasis income-inclusive estimate because dividends are part of the portfolio’s actual strategy.
The first quarter was the more useful defensive test. Atrahasis was down 2.16% on a market-move basis, or about 1.66% after including dividends. That was not pleasant, but it was better than the S&P 500, which was down 4.63%, and the Nasdaq Composite, which was down 7.10%. The Russell 2000 did better, ending Q1 up 0.58%.
Across the first four months of 2026, Atrahasis returned about +3.65% on a market-move basis and about +4.32% after including dividends. Over the same Jan-Apr period, the S&P 500 was up about 5.31%, the Nasdaq Composite about 7.10%, and the Russell 2000 about 12.81%.
So the portfolio did not beat everything.
It did something more relevant to the actual plan: it held up better than the large U.S. indexes in Q1, participated in the April recovery, collected almost S$19.7k in dividends over the first four months, and reached a new month-end high.
What Held Up Well?
April dividends came in at S$5,038.28. The main cashflows were: DBS, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, A200 and AAA.
This was not a huge dividend month like March, but it was still meaningful.
More than S$5k landed while the portfolio was recovering in price. That matters. It gives the portfolio a second way to make progress. Prices can move around, but the income stream keeps adding cash to the system.
The Bridge Cash Bucket also continued to serve its purpose. It remains at S$165k, or 39% funded.
That bucket is not there to boost returns. It is there to reduce future pressure. If markets fall near retirement, I do not want to be forced to sell good assets at bad prices just to fund living expenses.
What Hurt Performance?
The March drawdown mainly came from the risk side of the portfolio.
I do not have perfect position-by-position attribution down to the last dollar, so I do not want to overstate it. Directionally, though, the pressure was clear: global equities, growth-sensitive assets, and anything affected by oil, rates, and risk sentiment had a rougher time.
The income holdings helped, but they did not make the portfolio immune.
That is an important point.
Singapore REITs, banks, short-duration holdings, and cash-like assets can cushion volatility. They cannot eliminate it. A diversified portfolio can still fall when markets are selling off broadly.
April Purchases: Small, Local, Income-Focused
April was a quieter deployment month compared with the first quarter.
The S$15,356 deployed went entirely into Singapore-listed income holdings.
Parkway Life REIT: adding to healthcare income
I bought another 1,500 units of Parkway Life REIT.
The reason is unchanged. Healthcare property has a different demand profile from malls, hotels, or offices. People do not stop needing hospitals and care facilities because markets are nervous.
That does not make Parkway Life risk-free. It is still a REIT. It still has debt, refinancing risk, valuation risk, and rate sensitivity.
But inside the income sleeve, I like the role it plays.
CapitaLand Ascendas REIT: maintaining the position
I added 2,200 units of CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, including the rights-related allocation.
This was not a new idea. A17U is already a meaningful holding. The April addition was about maintaining the position and keeping the income sleeve intact.
The caution is concentration.
A17U is a quality REIT, but quality does not remove interest-rate risk. Borrowing costs, refinancing, and investor appetite for yield still matter.
So I am happy to own it, but I do not want REITs to become too large a part of the portfolio story.
NetLink NBN Trust: a small infrastructure income line
I also bought 4,300 units of NetLink NBN Trust.
This is a small addition, but it gives the Singapore income sleeve a slightly different flavour. NetLink is infrastructure income rather than property income.
IWDA: The Core Is Growing, but the Process Needs Work
There were no IWDA purchases in April.
That is the part of the month I am least satisfied with.
The issue is not conviction. IWDA is still the main global core of the portfolio. I still want it to become a larger part of the overall allocation. The portfolio now holds 2,349 IWDA shares, up from 1,804 shares in the December breakdown.
So progress is happening.
The issue is execution.
At the moment, I tend to buy IWDA manually on dips. That sounds sensible, but April exposed the weakness in that approach. Markets moved quickly. I was busy. The dip came and went. I did not add.
That is not a major mistake, but it is useful information.
If IWDA is meant to be the long-term core, buying it should not depend so much on whether I happen to be free when the market gives me a chance.
I probably need a simple trigger system.
Not a clever signal. Not something that pretends to identify the bottom. Just a basic operating rule so that the intended buying actually happens.
A possible version:
- Set a base monthly IWDA buy when cash is available.
- Add an extra tranche if IWDA falls a set percentage from a recent high.
- Add another tranche if the fall deepens.
- If no dip appears by month-end, still place a smaller base buy.
- Use price alerts or calendar reminders so the decision does not depend on me checking manually.
I will probably test a simple version of this over the next few months.
The real risk is not buying IWDA slightly too early but saying the global core needs to grow, while the actual buying keeps getting delayed because I am waiting for a dip I may be too busy to use.
That is the lesson from April.
The global core does not just need conviction. It needs a better process.
What Went Well
The new all-time high is the obvious positive.
The portfolio ended April at S$3.121m, which is S$105.7k above the previous month-end high. Including the Bridge Cash Bucket, the total was S$3.286m.
That is worth enjoying.
A few other things went well too.
The dividend stream remained meaningful. April added S$5,038.28, and the first four months of 2026 have now produced about S$19,691 in dividends.
The Bridge Cash Bucket stayed intact. It did not contribute to April’s return, but that is not its job.
The Q1 IWDA purchases also look useful in hindsight. I did not time anything perfectly, but I did add meaningfully to the global core during a difficult quarter and it paid off.
April itself was not an aggressive buying month, and that is fine. Not every month needs to be exciting.
Closing Reflection
April was a good month for the portfolio.
The value recovered from March’s decline, reached a new month-end high, and collected more than S$5k in dividends. The first quarter-plus scorecard is also reasonable: positive total return, meaningful income, and better Q1 resilience than the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.
There is still work to do.
The portfolio remains too tilted toward Singapore income and REITs. IWDA still needs to grow. And April exposed a small but important process issue: if the global core depends on manual dip-buying, it is too easy for life to get in the way.
So I am happy with the new high.
I am also taking the lesson.
The next improvement is not a new holding. It is a better buying process.
