Frederick S. Mates

Frederick S. Mates, aka Frederic Mates, founded in August 1967 the Mates Investment Fund, a high-flying mutual fund 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 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 in 1954. According to a New York Times obituary, Mates died in Kansas City on December 25, 1982.

See also

• Gerald Tsai
• Cortes Wesley Randell

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. ISBN 0-679-41584-X
• Returns for illiquid holdings in mutual funds are overstated study by Nicolas Bollen and Veronika Pool
• Time magazine Mates Checked Jan. 03, 1969
• Valerie Mates on Google Answers