RPD Fund Management LLC today announced that the RPD Fortress Fund returned +0.94% net in April, bringing year-to-date performance to +2.93% net. The Fund has now delivered positive performance in 26 of 27 months since inception, with the only down month at just -0.07% - highlighting the strategy’s consistency and resilience across market environments.
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April’s performance came during a period of heightened volatility and equity market weakness, driven by sweeping U.S. trade tariffs and a sharp spike in the VIX. While broader indices declined in 2025, the Fortress Fund capitalized on dislocations through its conservative options-based approach.
The strategy combines bottom-up fundamental value investing with the disciplined sale of cash-secured, short-dated listed options on individual equities. This allows the Fund to generate steady, uncorrelated returns while maintaining a low-risk profile.
"Elevated volatility in April expanded our opportunity set," said Ahmet Okumus, Portfolio Manager. "We were able to write options at wider valuation buffers, increasing both the premium collected and our margin of safety—while maintaining our core discipline of using no leverage, even on a notional basis, and staying within a strict 100% gross notional exposure limit."
Ahmet Okumus has been managing hedge funds since 1997, with a long-standing track record in fundamental investing.
Key metrics as of April 30, 2025:
- Annualized Volatility: 1.85%
- Sharpe Ratio: 3.23
- Net CAGR: 10.06%
- Target Net Exposure: 0% – 30%
- Leverage: None
- Liquidity: Monthly, with no lock-up
Approximately 40% of the firm’s total AUM is internal capital, reflecting deep alignment with investors.
