Bradley Wickens, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of macro-focused hedge fund Broad Reach Investment Management, has issued a stark warning to investors: the current market downturn is far from over, according too a report by the Wall Street Journal.
Wickens – who oversees $2bn in assets – has turned structurally bearish for only the fourth time in his career – the dot-com crash, the 2008 financial crisis, and the 2022 equity rout. Now, he believes President Trump’s aggressive tariff push will usher in a new era of global market instability.
“The market has yet to fully digest the severity of what was announced,” Wickens said in an interview on Thursday. “The impact will play out over the coming months, as it becomes clear that these tariffs aren’t going away anytime soon.”
The Broad Reach founder expects the fallout to intensify in April and May, with retaliatory measures from trading partners adding fuel to already heightened volatility. He also sees renewed inflationary pressures and a drag on global growth as supply chains and pricing structures adjust.
In response, Wickens has repositioned his portfolio more defensively, ramping up short exposure across multiple asset classes. Broad Reach is now short US and European equities, global credit, and several emerging market currencies, including the Indian rupee, Thai baht, and Chinese yuan.
On the long side, the fund has shifted into traditional safe havens – US Treasuries, German bunds, and the Japanese yen.
“We began de-risking shortly after Trump’s inauguration,” Wickens said. “But more recently, we’ve moved more aggressively to hedge, given the likelihood of sustained policy-driven dislocation.”
He sees further downside ahead for equities, forecasting an additional 6% to 7% drawdown over the next couple of months as markets recalibrate.
