Good evening investors!

Every month we publish our “Portfolio Update” — Edge+ members get a full access look into our portfolios, including holdings, performance, activity and our watchlists for the upcoming month.

Let’s dive in.

Edge Announcements

🚨 MEETING REMINDER 🚨

The Monthly Meeting exclusively for Edge+ members will be held on Saturday, May 17th at 10 AM EST.

Here's what we will be covering

• A deep dive into Mark's personal portfolio, recent moves, and his top 10 individual holdings 

• Exclusive insights into the stocks we’re watching closely, complete with Edge scores and analysis

• A breakdown of the most intriguing charts we’ve seen recently

• PLUS, a live, interactive Q&A to get your burning questions answered

Portfolio Update - Mark

For those new here, IE+ subscribers get full access to my monthly dividend portfolio updates, which includes:

• Portfolio Snapshot

• Portfolio Performance

• Stock Purchases

• Stock Sells

• Watchlist

*Note - this is the ONLY place where people can find our entire portfolios.

Portfolio Snapshot

As of the end of April 2025, my portfolio contained 46 total positions, 3 less than the month prior.

You can see all the portfolio activity down below, but first, here is a snapshot of my entire portfolio:

Portfolio Performance

In this section, I will highlight the performance of the portfolio both on a MONTHLY and Year-To-Date basis.

For comparison, here is how the benchmark S&P 500 did during those same time frames:

And here is how the equal weighted S&P 500 performed:

April was another red month, BARELY, but we did out perform both the market cap weighted S&P 500 and the equal weighted S&P 500 during the month, which is a positive.

Stocks turned the corner at the end of April after bottoming out in early April, and the turnaround has been fierce, quicker than I had even expected. For those of you that follow on discord, you know that I have been putting money to work in early May as well with the turnaround taking off a few defensive positions that I had in place, like selling out of TLT for the time being.

The surge higher has continued into the first half of May and the portfolio is looking much better than in the past two months, so hopefully we are turning a corner now that we have a little more clarity and less tensions between the US and China….for the time being.

Although some may lead you to believe we are “All CLEAR”, that is not an approach we are taking. We still want to maintain a balance given that the tariff impact has not yet hit prices yet until May and June, so these next two CPI reports will be interesting to watch. We are also beginning to hear about some layoffs at large companies like MSFT, so we want to maintain a balance approach.

Not trying to time the market, still staying invested, but I also have cash available for when more opportunities persist.

Stay tuned within our discord where Edge+ members get TRADE ALERTS, being notified of any changes I make to my portfolio in real time.

Monthly Activity

In this section, I detail out any transactions that were made within the portfolio during the month.

Portfolio Update - Chris

Every month, Investor’s Edge+ members get updates to my individual brokerage portfolio, which includes:

• Portfolio Snapshot

• Portfolio Performance

• Stock Purchases

• Stock Sells

• Watchlist

*Note - this update ONLY includes my brokerage portfolio. Retirement accounts, cryptocurrency, real estate and cash/cash equivalents outside of the brokerage are excluded from this update.

Portfolio Snapshot

As of the end of March 2025, my brokerage portfolio contained 59 total positions — 57 stock holdings and 2 options contract.

Here is a snapshot of my portfolio:

Portfolio Performance

In this section, I will highlight the performance of my portfolio in April as well as for the full year.

For comparison, here is how the benchmark S&P 500 did during those same time frames:

And here is how the equal weighted S&P 500 performed:

April brought more market turbulence, but my portfolio held up relatively well, declining just -0.54% for the month. That compares favorably to the Equal Weight S&P 500’s -2.38% drop and still outpaced the S&P 500’s -0.76% loss. 

Sticky inflation, ongoing tariff tensions, and Fed rate uncertainty weighed on markets again, but diversification helped soften the blow. Strong positioning in gold (GLD), international markets (VXUS), and income-generating ETFs like SCHD helped stabilize returns.

Year-to-date, my portfolio is down -2.11%, which still beats the S&P 500’s -5.31% return and remains competitive with the Equal Weight S&P’s -3.44%. That margin of relative strength has come from staying flexible, maintaining a solid cash position, and leaning on high-quality income plays and international exposure.

While hedges via SPY and QQQ puts lost value in April, they remain in place as protection with volatility still elevated. As we enter May, the market remains headline-driven and sensitive to policy shifts, flexibility continues to be key.

Monthly Activity

In this section, I will go through the transactions that were made within the portfolio during the month.

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Then you need to join the Discord! See our trades and portfolio moves as we make them and stay ahead of the market!

And did you know we started an Edge+ Portfolio where we invest $250 per month to show you exactly how we would build a portfolio from scratch. You can follow along and build your portfolio with us!

If you are only reading the newsletter, you are only getting a fraction of the benefits of being an Edge subscriber. Join us on Discord and level up your investing game.

Closing Remarks

April we saw the lows of the year, but with trade tensions easing between the two largest economic powers, markets have rebounded, and they have rebounded hard. As of closing on May 14th, the S&P 500 was actually positive on the year.

Since the lows of April 8th, the S&P 500 has rallied more than 22%, which is the fastest climb we have seen in modern history. An idex of this magnitude rallying more than 20% in essentially 1 month is wild.

This could setup things for a bit of a breather though, after all the saying in May goes “Sell in May, and Go Away” as the month does not historically produce great returns, so that is something we want to be mindful of.

Forecasting the current environment is no easy task, since the tariff situation is one that is fluid, right now we have a 90 day pause on the retaliatory tariffs between the US and China, but that can all change rather quickly. As investors, we also need to keep a close eye on the status of the economy as well and the impact tariffs will have on pricing in the coming months.

Being part of our discord community is vital right now because that is where we post all the up to the minute updates and trades as they are made, so you can choose to follow or not.

Here at The Stock Investor’s Edge, we are laser focused on helping educate investors of all levels, while also giving them full transparency into our personal portfolios.

We will continue to look for new ideas in the market and bring you as much information as we can to give you an EDGE in the markets.

If you enjoyed this Monthly Portfolio Update, then do us a HUGE FAVOR and SHARE THE INVESTOR’S EDGE WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY. It’s the best way to help us out as it lets us grow and be able to keep bringing you great investment content.

And don’t forget to LEAVE A COMMENT. Let us know your thoughts on our portfolios, share your watchlist for the month or even just let us know that you appreciate the content.

Thank you, and until next time investors!

Mark & Chris

The Investor’s Edge

Disclaimer

This article is intended to be for educational and informational purposes only. The views described in the article are those of the author’s and should not be construed as financial advice. Perform your own due diligence or contact your Financial Advisor before making any financial investment. I have positions in all of the stocks & ETFs mentioned below as of the publish date. This is a disclosure - not a recommendation to buy or sell stocks.