Vietnam's Market Madness

JULIAN ABRAM WAINWRIGHT FOR TIME

Amid Vietnam's boom, investors are rushing to load up on stocks

It's Friday night, and the back-alley Hanoi Internet caf is buzzing with video-game warriors noisily slaying dragons. But Trung, a 26-year-old engineer, is there to make a killing of a different kind. Logging onto an Internet chat room dedicated to stock trading, he joins about 1,000 other Vietnamese with aliases like "warrenbuffet74" and "wallstreethanoi" who are in search of the day's hot deals. "I'm selling 13,000 shares of CavicoE," reads one message. "Price is 31,000 dong per share. Contact Manh." The next message reads: "Oh, what a pity. I just bought the same stock at 32,000—I wish I'd found you before."...

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