The first article of our newsletter is devoted to one of our to an interesting type of business, namely family-owned business. Although nowadays this term seems to sound rather archaic as many companies are primarily public, still there are some examples that have evolved in the past years and have turned into notable giants in their fields. In the article we will deal with the commodity business and some of its greatest specimens in terms of success.

In the second article we shall deal with a company that is undoubtedly recognized by everybody. Yes, this is Nokia, and it looks as if it is not going to give away its positions and is planning to regain its lost share by presenting a range of innovative products. They do seem o look very attractive and unforeseen in the consumer electronics industry, but isn’t it already too late?

As always, comments and suggestions are more than welcome, so we hope you will enjoy reading the newsletter.

Yours financially,

iFund

Newsletter 9

The first article of our newsletter is devoted to one of our neighbouring countries: yes, it is
Belarus. This year the country has undergone several devaluations due to speculative
attacks fostered by speculators and the people in Belarus themselves, who started to
doubt the stability of the rouble. Now major concerns arise whether the country could
follow the path of Zimbabwe and continue to show immense inflation rates in the nearest
future. We will try to find that out.

In the second article we shall deal with a very innovative company, which most likely is
familiar to you: Groupon. After 2 years of successful activities in the world internet discount
market, the company has finally filed for being floated on the stock exchange, namely,
undergo an Initial Public Offering. In the article we shall touch upon the problems facing the
company as well as the prospective results of the IPO.

As always, comments and suggestions are more than welcome, so we hope you will enjoy
reading the newsletter.

Yours financially,

iFund

Newsletter 8

This issue of the newsletter somewhat steps away from the conventional format of the newsletter and shall deal only with companies. The first article concerns the former Swedish automobile giant SAAB, which recently has run into a series of problems and is now seeking its way out of the abyss.

In the second article we shall deal with the world’s most valuable company, namely, Google.
As always, comments and suggestions are more than welcome, so we hope you will enjoy reading the newsletter.

Yours financially,

iFund

Newsletter 7

Perhaps those of you who watch financial news or just keep up with the latest trends have
seen the astonishing video where a Goldman Sachs trader announced that the new crisis
was about to hit next year and that all people should be aware of that. His speech has a
dose of truth, which we will try to elaborate on in our first article.

The second article concerns the LME event, the world’s largest metal event, which dictates
many trends in the world commodity trade. They say that the decisions and discussions
made there largely reflect the state of the world’s economy… and its nearest future.
As always, comments and suggestions are more than welcome, so we hope you will enjoy
reading the newsletter.

Yours financially,

iFund

Newsletter 6

Yours financially,
iFund

Newsletter 5

Newsletter 4

A 31-year-old Ghanaian UBS employee Kweko Aduoboli working in the London office has been charged on charges of “abuse of power in the fraud and false accounting”, Stock Market Today reports. The case was immediately followed in the London Central court, where the guy burst in tears of his past commitments. In the first hearing he was brought accusations of fraud and false accounting. Even though the bank blamed a rogue trader, some inside the firm knew enough to question his trading fairly early on in the alleged scheme, according to a person familiar with the situation. However, either for fear they might be accused themselves or for some other reason the disaster had not been prevented earlier.

UBS in its first press release on Sunday said that the loss resulted from “unauthorized speculative trading in various S&P 500, DAX, and EuroStoxx index futures over the last three months.” However, the UK authorities and invited auditor companies have strong reason to think that the fraudulent scheme dated back to 2008 and they are completely in contra to UBS’s views that the rogue trader acted alone, rather than being covered by his co-workers who in fact knew about his dealings.

Interestingly, the bank then announced in its statement that the positions taken by the trader “were within the normal business flow of a large global equity trading house as part of a properly hedged portfolio,” but the risk of them was masked because the trader also took out fictitious offsetting exchange-traded-funds positions. It all started with a small loss during a speculative action around two months, which Mr. Adoboli then tried to cover by entering a series of risky trading covering the positions with ETF futures.

As WSJ explains the situation that „to avoid showing naked „or revealing his hedging strategy with ETF futures”, or unhedged, trades that would have gotten him in trouble, he needed to show that his trades were offset with bets in the opposite direction of his real trades, according to people familiar with the matter. To do so, he recorded on the company’s books transactions that never took place, according to people familiar with the situation.”

Yet the market overturn in the past months severely undermined his situation which soon became uncontrollable. In other words, he faced the same fate as Nick Leeson who betted on the rise of NIKKEI 225 stocks, yet his plans were devastated after the earthquake in Japan bringing a total of 800 Million pound sterling losses to Barrings, one of the oldest British banks.

More interestingly, the guy did not just conform with the classical ”I’m sorry” note (as Nick Leeson did. UBS said the rogue trader, following inquiries from bank officials who were reviewing his positions, revealed his unauthorized activities Wednesday. Around midday that day, he went home and wrote an email from his personal account to his boss, John Hughes, admitting to the unauthorized trades and providing Mr. Hughes with details of what he had done, according to a person familiar with the events.

The issue is still investigated, so we can expect further updates coming on what really happened in this witty financial scheme. iFund will be the first to inform you so stay tuned for the news.

If you have not attended the presentation, here is the link to it:

IB internship

Stay tuned for more interesting and exciting guest lectures by the Investment Fund

It has been a while since the last time when we bothered you with a Newsletter. However time keeps rolling and new developments in the area of our common interests are occurring. This newsletter is somewhat a bit delayed, but still have a little rest and learn about the latest occurrences in the financial world. For starters there is a short overview of Italy, which has a certain probability of facing the same debt crisis as Greece. For the main course, enjoy an extensive review of Brazil, a gigantic emerging economy that is bound to become one of the most influential powers in the next decade.

With no more ado, find the newsletter attached.

Yours sincerely,

The Investment Fund board

Newsletter 3

As time passes by and you are getting deeper and deeper into matters of Math and Entrepreneurship as well Y2s discover comparative advantages in IE, we, nevertheless, suggest you take a pause and rest your eyes on fresh news from another area. This week we place our focus on Greece and its prospects of further recovery from the debt crisis, and Yahoo, the company that has experienced several years of serious slump and now seeks for ways of going out of the abyss.

With no further ado, you can find the newsletter attached.

Cheers,

Investment Fund

Newsletter 2