2025 - It remains a wild rollercoaster ride. On April 2, Donald Trump sends everything that is not gold on a downward spiral.
And just a few weeks later, investors in the US / in US dollars at least might ask themselves: Tariffs, was there anything at all?
The US indices S&P 500, Dow Jones and NASDAQ have returned to their pre-Liberation Day levels of early April and have recovered all their losses.
Unfortunately, things look somewhat worse for us euro investors due to the strong depreciation of the dollar. An S&P 500 ETF in euros is still around 6% below its level at the beginning of April.
Monthly view:
Nevertheless, there was also a real race to catch up in my portfolio in April. While my portfolio had lost ~10% in March, at the beginning of April there were again price losses of almost -11% on the board. In total, this amounted to ~€70,000 in price losses.
After that, things picked up significantly and April closed with only -3,4%.
This corresponds to price losses of over 11.000€.
The MSCI World (benchmark) was -5.1% and the S&P500 -1.1% (in dollars, for euro investors it was more like -6%).
Winners & losers:
A look at the winners and losers shows a much more balanced picture in April than in March:
On the winner side the top 5 are my two cybersecurity investments with Crowdstrike $CRWD (+2,3%) in 1st place and Palo Alto Networks $PANW (+0,28%) in 4th place. 2nd place goes to Bitcoin $BTC (+1,3%)
, which finally lives up to its status as "digital gold" this month.
The top 5 is completed by MercadoLibre $MELI (+1,05%) in 3rd place and Bechtle $BC8 (-1,15%) in 5th place.
Now a look at the losers' side:
1st and 2nd place go to Starbucks $SBUX (-1,39%) and NVIDIA $NVDA (+0,56%) with losses of €1,300 each. In 3rd place follows Meta
$META (-1,24%) with losses of €1,200, despite the strong quarterly figures at the end of April. Places 4 and 5 then go to two healthcare stocks with Amgen $AMGN (+0,3%) and Thermo Fisher $TMO (+1,54%)
The performance-neutral movements in April were € 650 - these are still lower at the moment due to the issue of house building.
current year:
In the YTD my portfolio is still clearly in the red with -12,4%. The MSCI World is still slightly better at -10.6%.
In total, my portfolio currently stands at ~252.000€. This corresponds to an absolute decline of ~€33,000 in the current year 2025. -37.000€ of this comes from exchange rate losses, slightly offset by ~1.200€ from dividends / interest and ~2.600€ from additional investments.
Dividend:
- Dividends in April were +38% above the previous year at ~221€
- LVMH is in the lead with a (gross) dividend of over €40
- In the current year, dividends after 4 months are +20% over the first 4 months of 2025 at ~955€
- I have reached another milestone with regard to the rolling 12-month view. For the first time, I have received over €3,000 in gross dividends for the last 12 months.
- However, the significant fall in the US dollar is also making itself felt in the dividends. My dividend forecast for this year is now only +5-10% instead of 15-20%
Buying & selling:
- I bought in March for 875€
- 570€ shares
- 205€ ETFs
- 100€ crypto
- Sales there were none in April
YouTube:
My portfolio update for April is now also available on YouTube (as usual). There I also discuss the impact of the US dollar in more detail.
Link: https://youtu.be/EeEZ4JveSec
Target 2025
I haven't really set myself any goals for 2025 due to the issue of building a house. A fixed savings rate is difficult to implement due to the issue (unforeseen costs and the like).
A dividend target will also be very difficult due to the high volatility of the US dollar.
That's why I'm focusing on other topics this year, especially building a house and possibly one or two YouTube successes.
How are things looking for you? Have you also felt the effects of the weak US dollar? Or are you now buying properly and taking advantage of the "strong euro"?
