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To: Giraffe who wrote (19284)	9/18/1998 10:18:00 PM
From: Investor-ex!	Respond to of 116900

[off topic] ba-dump-bump-splash!!

To: Giraffe who wrote (19284)	9/18/1998 10:28:00 PM
From: Giraffe	Respond to of 116900

Friedberg stung for possibly $30-million by rising ruble Currency fund suffers startling loss in week Toronto-based currency trader Friedberg Mercantile Group and its clients were stung for possibly as much as $30-million this week when the ruble briefly soared in what was widely seen as Russian manipulation of the currency market. as Russia believed to have 'rigged' market Friday, September 18, 1998 By Andrew Bell Investment Reporter "The market was rigged," said an exasperated David Rothberg, a principal at Friedberg. One of Friedberg's funds, the Friedberg Currency Fund, posted a startling loss of 24 per cent in the week ended Wednesday, but it was still up 15 per cent for the year to date. The currency fund had assets of $67-million at the end of August. Its investors have thrived over the past 12 months: The fund posted a return of 83.1 per cent in the year ended Aug. 31, the best performance by any fund in Canada. Friedberg, headed by renowned currency trader Albert Friedberg, says it manages a total of about $800-million (U.S.). Mr. Rothberg refused to put an estimate on the firm's ruble losses this week, but Bay Street observers said Friedberg and its clients may have lost between $20-million (Canadian) and $30-million. Mr. Rothberg said those figures "were in the ballpark" but he added that most of the money represented profits already earned by betting against the sliding ruble. He said "80 per cent" of the losses during the past week were incurred when Friedberg and other international investors were caught with forward contracts that amounted to bets that the ruble would fall. The sick currency staged a temporary recovery this week, soaring to 8.5 rubles to the U.S. dollar on Monday from 23 rubles a week earlier. Foreign investors noted dryly that the rally came just in time for Russian banks, which on Tuesday faced expiration on contracts that obliged them to deliver dollars to holders of Russian bonds. "This is an interesting way to do it -- not to not honour your forward contracts, but just to make them worthless [by manipulating the ruble]," one Western banker told Reuters. By Tuesday afternoon, the ruble had crashed again, to 12.5 to the dollar, and late yesterday it traded at 15.85 to the dollar. Russia's currency is down 57 per cent since Aug. 17, when Moscow gave up trying to support it. Consumer prices in Russia soared 43 per cent in the first two weeks of September, equalling an annual rate of almost 1,500 per cent. Standard & Poor's Corp. has lowered Russia's credit rating to triple-C-minus, one step below that of Pakistan, and its lowest rating on any country. "The payment system has collapsed," Peter Botoucharov, head of East European research at Bank of Boston Corp. in London, told Bloomberg News yesterday. Globe and Mail