My Momentum Portfolio Closed April +22%, Beating Nifty 500 by 11.5 Points
The first month of FY27 is in the books. Markets bounced hard off the March lows, momentum names led the rebound, and my Nifty 500 momentum portfolio rode the wave cleanly — closing the month +22.03% against Nifty 500's +10.50%.
That's 11.5 percentage points of alpha in 20 trading days. The chart tells the story.
The Setup Going In
I run a rules-based momentum portfolio on the Nifty 500 universe in my personal account. 15 stocks, equal-weight, periodic rebalance, no overrides. The basket coming into April was set at the previous rebalance date based on a momentum-quality screen — the system picks stocks in clean uptrends and avoids names that look broken.
That's the whole brief. No discretion, no overrides, no "I have a feeling about this one." Whatever the rules say, that's what I hold.
How April Played Out
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Month return | +22.03% |
| Nifty 500 return | +10.50% |
| Alpha vs Nifty 500 | +11.53 pp |
| Trading days | 20 |
| Up days / Down days | 15 / 5 |
| Best day | Apr 1 (+3.25%) |
| Worst day | Apr 7 (-0.63%) |
| Max drawdown | -0.66% |
The most striking number isn't the +22%. It's the -0.66% max drawdown. The portfolio basically went up, took a couple of small breathers, then went up some more. The equity curve barely had a dip.
That's not normal. Most months — even good months — have at least one ugly 2-3 day stretch where things look broken. April had none. Every red day was immediately followed by a green one.
What Drove the Move
April was a textbook trend month. After the March drawdown spooked everyone out of small and midcaps, the rebound was sharp and led by the same names that had been working before the correction. Momentum strategies live for this exact setup: a brief shakeout that doesn't break the trend, followed by the snap-back rally where everyone who got out has to chase prices back up.
Three things helped:
- Tight benchmark gap on the way up. The portfolio led Nifty 500 from day one and the gap widened steadily through the month. No catch-up days, no whipsaw losses.
- Smallcap leadership. The current basket is heavy on smaller names, and small/mid was where the rebound was strongest in April.
- Zero forced exits. Not a single holding broke its trend rule during the month — meaning none had to be sold at month-end. Every name carried into May.
Current Cap Allocation
| Bucket | Weight | Stocks |
|---|---|---|
| Largecap (Nifty 100) | ~20% | 3 |
| Midcap (Nifty 101-250) | ~27% | 4 |
| Smallcap (251+) | ~53% | 8 |
About half the portfolio sits in smallcap names right now, which mostly reflects where momentum lives in this market regime. When largecaps lead, the system rotates toward Nifty 100 names. Right now smaller names are doing the work, so the portfolio leans there.
This isn't a deliberate "go heavy smallcap" call — it's just what the rules surfaced. Whenever the trend leadership shifts, the basket will shift with it at the next rebalance.
What Didn't Work
A few honest observations about April that don't show up in the headline number:
- The win was concentrated in trend, not picks. This was a beta-adjacent month. Most names in the basket went up because their cap segment went up. A flat or declining month for smallcaps in May could give back a chunk of this gain quickly.
- No alpha from selection within smallcap. I didn't compare against Nifty Smallcap 250, but informally, the system's ~53% smallcap weight likely tracked the smallcap index pretty closely on its smallcap sleeve. The +11.5pp alpha is mostly the cap-tilt premium, not stock-picking edge.
- Drawdown of -0.66% is too good to be normal. Don't anchor on it. Most months will have rougher patches. The system has gone through much deeper drawdowns over its history — that's what you should mentally prepare for, not the April figure.
What's Next
Same 15 names carrying into May. The basket holds unless a name breaks its trend rule, in which case the system exits it at the next scheduled check.
If the rebound continues, the portfolio probably keeps grinding higher with the small/midcap rally. If markets roll over, the system will start exiting names and ending up partly in cash before the next refresh.
I'll do another update at the end of May. The interesting test will be whether the alpha holds when the easy rebound trade is over.
Personal trading account. Not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investments in securities are subject to market risks. I do not currently hold a SEBI Research Analyst registration; this is a personal portfolio update, not a research recommendation.