Vietnam Revisited

You may have noticed I’m becoming mildly obsessed with my investments as a bit of light relief from reading and doing crosswords. This breaks one of my rules: don’t look.

I took a look at Vietnam on 22nd November last year because a friend was thinking of investing there and wanted to know how I was faring. To remind you, I bought three investment trusts in the second and third quarters of 2018. This was my scorecard.

Vina Capital + 14%
Vietnam Enterprise +14%
Vietnam Holdings – 15.5%
Not very impressive. My funds could have been better deployed elsewhere. But what a difference a day makes, according to Dinah Washington. In Vietnam fewer than two months make a difference. It is a volatile market out east. Here’s the scorecard today.
Vina Capital + 41%
Vietnam Enterprise +29%
Vietnam Holdings +10%
Average +26%
The average reflects the different amounts invested in each fund. There are probably easier ways to make money. There is geopolitical risk, tariff risk and all my funds have high fees. On the other hand there’s nothing wrong with a bit of diversification. I’m pleased I listened to my godson’s father at that gulls’ eggs lunch in March 2018. Perhaps I should have mentioned he manages an Emerging Markets fund.