Japanese Housewives Sweat in Secret as Markets Reel ___________________________________________________
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: September 16, 2007
TOKYO, Sept. 15 — Since the credit crisis started shaking the world financial markets this summer, many professional traders have taken big losses. Another, less likely group of investors has, too: middle-class Japanese homemakers who moonlight as amateur currency speculators.
Ms. Itoh is one of them. Ms. Itoh, a homemaker in the central city of Nagoya, did not want her full name used because her husband still does not know. After cleaning the dinner dishes, she would spend her evenings buying and selling British pounds and Australian dollars.
When the turmoil struck the currency markets last month, Ms. Itoh spent a sleepless week as market losses wiped out her holdings. She lost nearly all her family’s $100,000 in savings.
“I wanted to add to our savings, but instead I got in over my head,” Ms. Itoh, 36, said.
<snip>
For a time, margin trading seemed like a surefire way to make money, as the yen moved only downward against the dollar and other currencies. But last month, in the midst of the credit turmoil, the yen soared as hedge funds and traders panicked.
Ms. Itoh recalled that she had wanted to cry as she watched the yen jump as much as 5 percent in value in a single day, Aug. 16.
“But I had to keep a poker face, because my husband was sitting behind me,” Ms. Itoh said.
She did not sell her position, thinking the yen would fall again. But by the next morning, only $1,000 remained in her account, she said.
<snip>
Most analysts estimate that Japanese online investors lost $2.5 billion trading currency last month. In fact, the subprime-mortgage crisis was the first severe market downturn since online trading took off here. Economists see the current tumult as the first real test of Japan’s homemaker-traders, and whether these newcomers have the stomach to ride out markets in a time of volatility.
<snip>
more: nytimes.com |
