Frederick S. Mates, aka Frederic Mates, founded in August 1967 the Mates Investment Fund, a high-flying
mutual fund
A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICA ...
during the 'Go-Go' 60s that later crashed in the
bear market of the early 1970s.
Mates ran his fund from an office he dubbed the "kibbutz" and with a young staff he called his "flower children".
Mates put most of his fund into a
letter stock
Tracking stock, also known as letter stock and targeted stock, is a specialized equity offering issued by a company that is based on the operations of a defined business within the larger organization (such as, for instance, a wholly owned subsid ...
known as Omega Equities. Mates in determining his funds assets assigned a value to the barely traded Omega of $16 a share, while having purchased the stock at $3.25 a share. Mates got into trouble over this practice which was routine in the 1960s and not uncommon even today, of accounting for letter stocks at a price different from what was paid for it. As a result, when confidence was lost in Mates' mutual fund and investors wanted to cash out, redemptions had to be suspended for a while, which the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission condoned.
Mates was born in Brooklyn and graduated from
Brooklyn College
, mottoeng = Nothing without great effort
, established =
, parent = CUNY
, type = Public university
, endowment = $98.0 million (2019)
, budget = $123.96 m ...
in 1954. According to a New York Times obituary, Mates died in Kansas City on December 25, 1982.
See also
*
Gerald Tsai
Gerald Tsai Jr. (; March 10, 1929 – July 9, 2008) was a billionaire investor and philanthropist who helped build Fidelity Investments into a mutual fund powerhouse.
After starting Fidelity Investments' first publicly sold aggressive growth fund ...
*
Cortes Wesley Randell
Cortes Wesley Randell (September 28, 1935 – December 29, 2020) was an American businessman. Randell worked on the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System. He also founded the National Student Marketing Corporation, and was president of Federa ...
Notes
References
* John Brooks Wiley. ''The Go-Go Years: The Drama and Crashing Finale of Wall Street's Bullish 60s''. New Ed edition (September 10, 1999
Excerpt*
Roger Lowenstein. ''Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist''. Random House 1995.
* Returns for illiquid holdings in mutual funds are overstate
study by Nicolas Bollen and Veronika PoolValerie Mates on Google Answers
1982 deaths
American financial businesspeople
Year of birth missing
Brooklyn College alumni
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