The NYT featured a story titled “Japanese Housewives Sweat in Secret as Markets Reel.” While it is a funny read, it’s somewhat sad at the same time.
It’s no secret that since the credit crisis struck this summer, large and well known brokerage firms and professional investors alike have suffered big time losses. It turns out that another class of unknown investors has suffered right along with them, namely middle-class Japanese homemakers who moonlight as amateur currency speculators.
The story tells of tens of thousands of married Japanese women who ventured into online currency trading in the last year and a half, by playing the markets between household chores or after tucking the children into bed. Many bought and sold stakes worth into the millions of dollars using leverage to enhance profits.
All seemed to go well until the SubPrime pig arrived and spread the credit crisis into all corners of the financial world. Suddenly Japan’s homemaker-traders have become another casualty of the shakeout with some losing a large portion of their life savings.
The moral of the story is that if your better half is repeatedly somewhat absent minded at the dinner table, maybe it’s time for you to check your investment account balances?