Vol.30 - Hedge Fund Strategies Explained: Part III & Buying a Home: More Paperwork

**CONTENTS**

-Feature - Hedge Fund Strategies Explained: Part III & Buying a Home: More Paperwork
-From the Editor
-Forex Weekly
-Yen Watch
-Events
-Job Watch
*Please scroll down below to read the disclaimer*

FEATURE

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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....

FROM THE EDITOR

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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.

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/

FOREX WEEKLY

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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.













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YEN WATCH

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Currency	10/3 Mon	10/4 Tue	10/5 Wed	10/6 Thu	10/7 Fri
USD	114.96	115.21	115.28	114.89	114.50
GBP	203.08	203.19	203.78	204.67	204.24
EUR	137.92	137.72	137.78	138.77	139.64
CAD	99.47	99.62	99.02	97.99	97.70
HKD	15.10	15.13	15.14	15.09	15.04
SGD	68.13	68.24	68.41	68.29	68.34
AUD	88.58	89.08	88.78	88.35	88.14

(The above TTS Exchange Rates has been brought to you by the courtesy of GoLloyds TSB)
The above rates were posted at 10:09 on Friday, October 7, 2005 and are valid for funds received before 3:00 pm on Friday, October 7, 2005. All funds received after 3:00 pm are remitted the following day at the following day's exchange rates. The exchange rates provided are intended only as a guide. The Bank reserves the right to apply a different exchange rate if the market is particularly volatile.

EVENT

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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

JOB WATCH

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Brought to you by DaiJob, Inc – providing jobs for bilinguals.

- 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!

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Edited by Burritt Sabin ([email protected])

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Disclaimer: This commentary is designed to help foreigners living in Japan understand the financial and investment opportunities available to them. It is NOT intended to constitute professional financial advice or an inducement to purchase the services and products mentioned. A condition of subscribing to this newsletter or reading this web site is that any actions taken by readers as a consequence of reading this column shall be the sole responsibility of the reader and no liability, implied or otherwise shall be assumed by Lloyd, Japan Inc. Communications, or other business entities related to either person.

© Japan Inc. Communications, 2005

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