Thursday, April 02, 2009

Monthly Review - March 2009

March was a great month for my investments. Just about every investment I hold appreciated in value and the gains were compounded by sharply favourable currency movements. In addition, I continued to enjoy full rental income from my properties, although reset lower rental levels will start applying from April onwards.

Here are the details:

1.my actively managed funds all appreciated during the month. I am still holding losses on many of them. I currently have investments in actively managed funds investing in Thailand, Taiwan, Eastern Small Companies, European Small Companies and Vietnam;

2. my index tracking funds were up. I currently have exposure to Hong Kong, India and Taiwan;

3. my residual equity portfolio appreciated slightly;

4. my commodity investments appreciated slightly. I have small positions in the Lyxor Commodities ETF, nickel and lean hogs;

5. all my properties are all fully rented and the tenants are paying the rent on time. I have both a positive cash flow and a surplus of income over expenses (which represents an increase in net worth).

6. currency movements were favourable as the USD retreated against a number of currencies.

I increased my exposure to the HK Tracker fund and entered into two OTC option contracts:(i) long NZD/USD (ii) writing a call option against the HK Tracker Fund.

Income was low (it will be erratic under the new job) but sufficient to contribute to the gain for the month. My spending was also low. I already make accruals against my net worth for holidays, luxuries and tax.

For the month, my net worth increased by 5.28%. The year to date increase is 16.37%.

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