PII-30 -- Hedge Fund Strategies Explained: Part III

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P E R S O N A L I N T E R N A T I O N A L I N V E S T O R
Personal Finance Intelligence for the Tokyo Community
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Personal International Investor
Vol. 30
October 13, 2005 Tokyo

For the full HTML version, go to:
http://japaninc.typepad.com/personal_intl_investor/2005/10/vol30_.html

CONTENTS

+ Feature
+ From the Editor
+ Forex Weekly
+ Yen Watch
+ Events
+ Job Watch

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FEATURER

Hedge Fund Strategies Explained: Part III
(By Sridhar Venki & Simon Hookway, MSS Capital Ltd. | October 13, 2005)

Investing in Hedge Funds via an Index Product -
The FTSE Hedge Index / FTSEhx Fund The FTSE

Hedge Index series is the latest addition to FTSE Group's portfolio
of global benchmark indices. The index series aims to provide a daily
measure of the aggregate risk and return characteristics of the
broad-based universe of investible hedge funds in a representative,
diversified, transparent and evolutionary manner. The index is
weighted using FTSE's "Investibility" methodology. Investibility is
best viewed as a natural extension of the free-float methodology that
FTSE uses for its equity indices.

Click here to read more...
http://japaninc.typepad.com/pii_full_article/2005/10/vol30_.html

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FROM THE EDITOR

Buying a Home - More Paperwork

It's the same anywhere. When you make a major purchase like a house and
land, you need copious paperwork to back your story up and to contract
the loan. Although the following list was taken from the Shinsei
Japanese home page, you will find that other banks have pretty much the
same requirements or worse.

Note that I haven't included the Servicing Agent agreement noted in a
previous article - this is just something for us foreigners when we don't
have permanent residence.

Note too, that while Shinsei does not, many Japanese banks have a pre-approval
system "Jinzen Shinsa" - which assesses your eligibility for a home
loan -based on your salary and other immediate personal information.
Such assessment may not follow the format offered below.

Stage One: Getting Started

・Application form - specific to each bank. This is a summary of your
personal information, how much you make, how stable your work background
is and how much you want. You don't need extra documents when submitting
the application form. If what you have applied for meets the bank's criteria,
then they will start asking for more details about you and your property.

Stage Two: Personal Information

・Personal ID -copy of either of: your driver's licence, social insurance
card, passport, or gaijin torokusho. Make sure that you provide copies of
both front and back. No notarization is needed.

If you're a salaryman:

・Gensenchoshuhyo - one copy for each of the last two years. This document,
your Statement of Income, is issued by your company accounting department
and is proof from the company of how much you were paid and what taxes you
paid.

・Juminzei Kazeishomeisho - this is the residential tax certificate issued
by the ward or city office. Be sure to specify the type that indicates both
your tax and income. You need to supply the last two years worth. OR,

・Juminzei Kazei Ketteitsuchisho - this is a similar document to the
Kazeishomeisho, and is a statement by the ward or city office notifying their
decision on the amount of tax you will be paying on the indicated salary.

If you're self-employed

・Kakuteishinkokusho (Tax Return) - one copy for each of the last two years.
You should have this form if you properly declared tax after working either
for yourself or after deriving income from more than one source. If you're a
regular salaryman, you won't have one of these. Where do you get it from?
Well, it's the last page of your tax return, which you should have kept when
you lodged the return. You should take a copy of this last page and submit
the copy.

・Nozeishomeisho - this is a set of two documents (you need both Sono-ichi
and Sono-ni) for the last two years. Issued by the tax department.
・Least, but possibly not last, if you own another property with a mortgage
on it, you need to supply proof of the repayment schedule and other pertinent
information.

Stage Three: The Property

From here on out, it gets easier. The property information necessary for bank
purposes should be supplied by your realtor. They will normally create a packet
of property/house data and plans, which you can simply give to the bank.

Among the things in the packet are:

If you are buying an apartment (mansion)

・Brochure - about the unit and the property it is built on

・Baibai Keiyakusho - if you already signed a provisional purchase contract
(subject to finance), you need a copy of that contract

・Juyojiko Setsumeisho - This declaration lists all the important matters
relating to the property. It's pretty much the same content as what the realtor
should have explained to you before you signed the provisional purchase contract.

If you are buying a house

・Building Permit - this should have been created when the house was built and
proves that the house is legal. It will be accompanied by house plan drawings,
the property plan, and other legal documents. Again, the realtor should be
providing this to you.

These documents are given by the bank to a valuer (Kanteishi), and this
person/company will analyze for the bank whether the building is legal or not
and really worth the amount being paid. It's all about risk analysis.

If you are building a house

・Some banks, including Shinsei, require you to loan enough money to buy both
land and build a home. The Shinsei home loan rule is that you have to use the
property as your primary residence. Therefore, they will require documents
such as plans and permissions, to make an overall assessment.

・Other banks may consider splitting your loan into two: first for the land,
then for the building, but this is considered an exception and packaging both
as a single transaction is normal. The implication here is that you can't really
take a home loan in stages if you want to build. You either go whole hog, or nothing.

Terrie Lloyd
...Investor in Training/

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FOREX WEEKLY

Team Tokyo Forex Weekly
October 5th - October 12th, 2005

Euro Drops on Concern Germany's New Leader Will Struggle to
Effectuate Policy.

This week we are focusing on activity in the Europe markets.
The Tokyo Market was closed on Monday due to a national holiday.

The euro weakened against the dollar for a third day in Asia on
concern Christian Democratic leader Angela Merkel will face
resistance to her policies from coalition partner Gerhard
Schroeder's party.

The Social Democrats, under whom Europe's largest economy
barely grew and unemployment rate rose to highest since World
War II, will keep the ministries of finance and labor under an
agreement yesterday to end a three-week election standoff.
The euro has dropped 1.5 percent since the debatable
election Sept. 18.

Against the dollar, the euro dropped to $1.2023. in Tokyo, from
$1.2067 late in New York yesterday, when it had its biggest spill
in a week, according to electronic currency dealing system.
It also fell to 137.26 yen, from 137.70. The euro may fall to $1.1950
this week.

The euro also may drop on speculation the European Central Bank
will hold off raising interest rates from a six-decade low until late
2006 as inflation in the dozen nations sharing the euro falls below
the bank's highest point and growth staggers behind the U.S. and
Asia, a survey of economists showed.

Get this report and more in Audio by subscribing to our News Letter.
Visit www.tokyo-forex-japan.com You can now view our up to date
streaming video in association with Forex TV.com when you visit
our site. Team Tokyo Forex, Tokyo's best kept secret weapon

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EVENTS

ICA Event
October 20th, 2005

Presenter - Gary Blankenship, Technical Director in Japan for Foundry
Networks
Topic ------- The Next Generation of Internet Protocol - Opportunities
and Challenges for Enterprises in Japan

RSVP: Complete event details at http://www.icajapan.jp/
Date: Thursday, October 20, 2005
Time: 6:30 Doors open, sit down dinner included
Cost: 3,000 yen (members), 5,500 yen (non-members),

Open to all - Location is Foreign Correspondents'
Club: http://www.fccj.or.jp/static/aboutus/map.php

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JOB WATCH

Brought to you by DaiJob, Inc - providing jobs for bilinguals.
http://www.daijob.com/dj4/tracker/counter?th=pii-toppage

- Credit Analyst Director (JPY 11-12M)
- Logistics Business Unit Controller (JPY13-14M)
- Asset & Liability Management Associate (Negotiable)
- Margin & Collateral Management Specialist (Negotiable)
- Tax Manager (Negotiable)

Check out these and other jobs like these here!
http://www.daijob.com/dj4/tracker/counter?th=pii-merumaga

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SUBSCRIBERS: 615 as of October 13, 2005

Edited by Burritt Sabin (editors2@japaninc.com)

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