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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tommaso who wrote (79966)	4/21/2000 6:51:00 PM
From: BGR	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Is pessimism a pre-requisite for bearishness?

To: Tommaso who wrote (79966)	4/22/2000 4:00:00 PM
From: Tommaso	Respond to of 132070

To answer (only in part)my own question, the Franklin Templeton Hard Currency Fund (ICPHX)seems to be a way of betting against the dollar. It is somewhat leveraged, in that it does hold futures contracts on currencies, mainly the Euro and Swiss Franc (about 65%), but also the Yen and New Zealand currency. The fund is net short on the dollar. Of course, it has a miserable record for the last few years. But what I dislike most of all is the 2.25% front end load. Add to that my broker's fee to buy this fund for an IRA and you are up to almost 3%. But at least it can be bought in the IRA. So there's an anti-dollar hedge--at a price.

To: Tommaso who wrote (79966)	4/23/2000 12:04:00 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

T, I am sure there are other ways to do it, but the only way I know of to buy the Euro bonds is to open an account at a European bank or with the International trading dept. of an American full sevice brokerage house or bank. Goldman and Morgan Stanley are very good in this area. Oddly enough, some of the best prices are at English banks. Odd, as they are not part of the European Union. The Swiss have plenty of inventory, but they tend to think an American customer is somebody who should pay 10% to walk in the door. You can also buy futures on the Euro on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at any futures broker. Futures, of course, have no expiration date, though they do have a delivery date. And you can margin them out the wazoo. And, of course, you can also play Yen or Swissies at the Merc. I prefer the options, but the futures have no premium to them, or very little, and sometimes have discounts.