Blue Diamond Fund Had Worst-Ever Month in April Amid Tariff Rout
(Bloomberg) — Swiss hedge fund Blue Diamond Asset Management posted its worst ever monthly result in April even after staging a partial recovery from losses triggered by US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.
The $2.2-billion Zug-based fund, which makes complex bets on market volatility, lost 11% in April, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. It was down as much as 17% early in the month, Bloomberg previously reported.
Blue Diamond’s previous worst monthly performance came in October 2013 when it lost 7.7%, the documents show.
Global markets plunged after Trump unveiled a plan on April 2 to introduce significantly higher tariffs than investors had been expecting. They’ve since calmed after the administration paused plans for the most punitive levies and begun negotiating deals with the country’s largest trading partners.
The VIX Index, Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge that measures swings in asset prices, has tumbled since spiking to a five-year high April 8.
Jonas Stark, Blue Diamond’s chief investment officer, didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.
Blue Diamond is down 12% for the year through April, according to the documents. The fund, founded by Stark more than a decade ago, has only previously posted one negative year. That was in 2017 when it recorded an 8% loss.
Investors use derivatives to wager on the direction and extent of volatility. The HFRI Relative-Value Volatility Index, which measures the performance of hedge funds such as Blue Diamond, climbed 1% in April and has gained 2.7% for the year so far.
–With assistance from Nishant Kumar.
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