Japanese Housewives Sweat in Secret as Markets Reel

I found this a really interesting article:

By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: September 16, 2007
TOKYO, Sept. 15 — Since the credit crisis started shaking the world financial markets this summer, many professional traders have taken big losses. Another, less likely group of investors has, too: middle-class Japanese homemakers who moonlight as amateur currency speculators.

Ms. Itoh is one of them. Ms. Itoh, a homemaker in the central city of Nagoya, did not want her full name used because her husband still does not know. After cleaning the dinner dishes, she would spend her evenings buying and selling British pounds and Australian dollars.

When the turmoil struck the currency markets last month, Ms. Itoh spent a sleepless week as market losses wiped out her holdings. She lost nearly all her family’s $100,000 in savings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/business/worldbusiness/16housewives.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin