Comments:
October 2021 saw a bounce back for all major indices. Although my funds also made a good recovery, they unfortunately did not perform as well as its benchmark indices.
United Global (+4.8%) being the top performing fund this month, still struggled to keep up with the S&P 500 which shot up by +6.9% mainly due to positive earning season in the US. I'd say the gains from United Global were kept humble due to its ex-US holdings which did not do as well.
Coming in second is United ASEAN (+4.4%) which clearly outperformed the KLCI (+1.6%). I'd say this is mainly due to its ex-Malaysia holdings which saw a hard rebound after the aggressive vaccine roll-out. The gains from KLCI hit a wall towards the 3rd week of the month as investors were cautious ahead of the Budget 2022 announcement.
Principal Greater China (+2.5%) and StashAway (+2.5%) saw gains as investors went on a bargain hunting spree after the -5.0% crash last month. This is further helped with Beijing easing on regulatory tech crackdown. Fear of Evergrande defaulting also simmers down as they paid a bond interest to offshore investors. That said, the gain still could not match Hang Seng's +3.4% performance this month.
TA Global Tech (+2.5%) is another underperformer if compared to its benchmark XLK ETF (+3.92%). I'd say the TA Global Tech was dragged down by the China tech funds which despite bouncing back, still was quite erratic due to flare up in US-China tensions.
My emergency funds in AmBond (-1.1%) further dipped, affected by the continuous rise of treasury yield in USA. I had negative savings this month (RM 4,805) as we had begun Phase 2 of our home renovation plan.
Forward Strategy:
I will continue to Value Cost Average (VCA) into my funds, keeping them at a fixed weightage as follows; United Global Equity (20.0%), StashAway (20.0%), TA Global Tech (20.0%), Principal Greater China (15.0%), United ASEAN (12.5%) and Manulife REITS (12.5%).