Investment

NEW YORK -- About 60 blocks north of Broadway's glitzy musical district, there are few leading roles for children to play. Gangs, drugs and pregnancy are the main attractions on Harlem's ragged stretch of this celebrated street.But a group of social workers supported by young Wall Street investment bankers are trying to turn this around. Together, the unlikely partners give 3,000 children a safe haven for at least a few hours each day.As an alternative to the violence and aimlessness of the street, the central Harlem office of the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families gives pregnancy and drug counseling, organized sports and homework tutoring from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. each weekday.

THIS MONTH'S big news for fund investors was old news for many people in the industry. They had been forecasting the problem for years, and took steps to stop it. And then they ignored their own rules. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer brought a complaint against a hedge-fund firm that worked with Bank of America to make trades after funds were supposed to be closed for the night. These types of trades - which allegedly allowed Canary Capital Partners to use late-breaking news to figure out which funds might profit from it - were clearly illegal; they also are much more likely to be isolated than some of Spitzer's other concerns.

The heads of the city's two major pension boards accused Mayor Martin O'Malley yesterday of abusing his authority in a tense dispute over investing money in the local economy. O'Malley, in a display of his power, said yesterday that he is blocking pension system requests that come before the Board of Estimates until the pension boards comply with his demand that they adopt guidelines for plowing money into local firms. "I think the mayor is overstepping his bounds," said Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, chairwoman of the Employees Retirement System board and a past critic of O'Malley.

Want to pick stocks like investment legend Benjamin Graham or mutual funds kingpin Peter Lynch? Sure you do. And now you can try. A feature of the Nasdaq Web site lets you evaluate potential stock picks against the philosophies of eight investment gurus and offers an approach to stock analysis. Start by visiting the Guru Screener page - www.nasdaq. com/reference/guru.stm. Once there, get stock suggestions based on the investment philosophies of one or more "gurus," including the aforementioned Graham and Lynch, noted growth investor Martin Zweig, contrarian investor David Dreman, and others.

"Are you satisfied with less than 4 percent?" asks a newspaper advertisement for PaineWebber."If you're tired of watching CD rates go down, take a look . . .," NTC says a Scudder Investment Services ad.Investing has been awash with suggestions since the high interest rates of the past have dwindled. But the risk often is played down."The higher the return, the greater the risk" is a maxim that is especially appropriate in times like these. Risk vs. reward has become the financial theme of the 1990s.

What started as an unusual investment by the state of Ohio in rare coins - including the purchase of nickels, dimes and pennies dating to the 1700s - has exploded into a political and legal scandal. Yesterday, the director of Ohio's workers' compensation bureau resigned after authorities learned that as much as $13 million of the state's $55.4 million investment may be missing. James Conrad, once dubbed "Mr. Fixit" for his reputation of turning around troubled programs, said he would voluntarily resign over the scandal.

The debate over Social Security reform has exposed a little secret among professional money managers: They're not sure what they're doing, either. President Bush proposes that workers be allowed to divert part of their Social Security insurance premiums into private accounts, to be invested in professionally managed stock and bond funds. Workers naturally are wary. Perhaps coincidentally, the pros who would be asked to manage the money are having an anxiety attack as well. Rules of thumb that governed investing for decades are being questioned in the wake of the Nasdaq bubble and the widespread forecast of flat stock and bond markets for the next several years.

A former Annapolis investment counselor convicted of swindling clients out of millions of dollars will return to court for sentencing next month, but on the least serious of alleged probation violations. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Ronald A. Silkworth will decide April 3 what to do about the failure of Joshua Fry, 67, to pay restitution on more than $3.5 million still due from cheating 131 clients out of $4.7 million in the early 1990s. "He has not written one check, not one money order," said Carolyn H. Henneman, chief of the criminal investigation division of the Maryland attorney general's office, noting that Fry has not made significant efforts to find work.

Despite its vast economic problems, Japan may be ripe for investment, but only for the long haul, international money managers at T. Rowe Price Group Inc. said yesterday. "There are encouraging signs in Japan," said John Ford, chief investment officer of T. Rowe Price International, who spoke to institutional clients yesterday at the Harbor Court Hotel in Baltimore. "We are really looking for a change in tack in Japan." Ford and other money managers at Price are encouraged because of the rise of Junichiro Koizumi, the bold reformer, who last month was elected the country's prime minister in a stunning upset.

Google has been called many things, from the world's greatest search engine to the next mega-media giant, to the best new stock to hit the market in decades. But no one has called Google the stock equivalent of a balanced mutual fund. No one except the government, that is. In the eyes of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google might actually be a mutual fund, and not a stock at all. You read that right. It's not a status that Google wants, nor is it a comparison company officials would ever make on their own - in fact, no one in the mutual fund business would suggest that Google should be considered a balanced fund - but it's a quirky story that reminds investors to ignore the labels that are put on investments, and to focus on the underlying assets.