European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 4, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes business news Buck stable against Mark in slow week the Dollar hovered around 1.86 West German Marks throughout a week of slow trading con firming Market expectations that higher interest Rales across Europe would keep the Greenback below 1.90. And while some traders predicted another up swing for the Buck to 1.90 Marks . Unemployment figures released Friday in Washington could serve to keep the Dollar at current Levels. The Dollar was fixed through monday at a military Exchange rate of 1.8i Marks Down from 1.86  August jobless rate increased to 5.6 per cent according to he labor department with by Paul Cosby inc number of Itose out of work increasing by 226,000 to 6,85 million. The number of those employed Rose by Only 121,000 to 115.18 Mil lion. But a More important indicator for the strength of the Dollar is the number of jobs Cre ated. A Survey of August business payrolls often considered a gauge of the Economy health showed 219,000 new jobs in August Well below the 400,000 average monthly increase in june and july. The Market already had anticipated that employment figures in the United Stales would show about 225,000 jobs created an american trader in Frankfurt said. Investors believed a larger number of new jobs would have signalled an overheating .Economy, triggering another round of interest Rale hikes by the fed. The Dollar had been steadily climbing against the Mark since june. And in Early August Market in Terest in the Greenback soared after the Federal Reserve bumped the . Discount Rale to fi.5 per cent. The Buck climbed As High As 1.92 Marks be fore an aug. 25 interest rate hike by West Ger Many s Bundesbank quickly followed by higher Rales in several other european countries. Investors bought dollars when . Interest Rales were higher because of the Beiler Sci urn. The topic today is investors Are going where they can gel the most Money Lic Frankfurt Trainr said. Still if Rales now remain stable inc Dollar could begin to Rise with inc release of . Trade deficit figures later this month the Frankfurt trader said. We Sec the Dollar firming heading toward 1.90 at some Point until we see Trade figures and interest Rale differentials stabilizing he said. The West German currency remained Strong through the week bolstered by hiked interest Rales and the apparent resolve of the Central Bank to intervene m the Market to keep the Dollar Down. Meanwhile inc big losers in last week s cur Trency markets Nave been the British Pound and the japanese yen. Already rocked by record monthly Trade Defi Cit figure in England the Pound could take advantage neither of a hike in the British base interest Rale not of steady Central Bank intervention to Shore up Sterling. While the intervention slowed the exodus from Pound id Marks Sterling dropped sharply As trading came to a close. The Pound fell late lost week o its lowest level against the Mark since mid july. The yen tumbled last week As japanese Slock prices moved lower and the japanese Central Bank refused to intervene. There also was no indication that Japan would raise its discount rate at 2.5 percent inc lowest in the world and on that news the Dollar climbed to a nine month High against the currency. Value averaging investing tells when to sell buy report says by Chet Curriera business writer new York looking for a disciplined systematic Way to build up a nest egg for College tuition or retirement consider a technique that capt. Michael e. Edleson an assistant economics professor at inc . Military Academy in West Point n.y., Calk value averaging. Edleson s idea is a new Livial on inc old popular strategy known As Dollar Cost averaging which Calls for investing identical amount at regular intervals in a vehicle such As a Mutual fund. But unlike Dollar cos averaging value averaging provides a Structure that tells you when to sell As Well As when to buy. The Basic idea of value averaging described by Edleson in the american association of individual investors aai1 journal is to increase the total value of your investment by a set amount each month. Suppose you want to build up a Mutual fund account of 124,000 Over the next 10 years to help pay College costs for a child now in second Grade. You can pursue thai goal by seeing that the account s value increases by $200 each month through thai 10-year period. The first month you simply make an initial invest ment of 1200, starting in the second month you invest whatever it lakes to increase the Overall value of your holdings by $200. If the net asset value of the fund s shares declines you will need to put up More than s200 in the second month. If it rises however you Wilt invest less. Assuming that sooner or later inc fund enters a period of Strong performance you arc Likely to encounter months in which Price appreciation alone increases the value of your holdings by More than 1200. In those instances you Doit l invest any Money at All. Rather you sell or redeem enough shares to bring the monthly increase Back Down to 1200, perhaps by switch ing the surplus Inola Money Market fund. A Reserve in the Money fund will help you keep the system going in periods when the fund declines Mak ing new monthly investments of substantially More than $200 necessary. Spoiled a flaw or two in this whole Deal Well yes Edleson concedes there arc sonic. For one thing the monthly mathematical exercise required makes it More complicated and time con suming than a simple Dollar Cost averaging program. Investing and redeeming Odd amounts regularly can incur forbidding transaction costs one reason Why. As Edleson says value averaging works Best with a Mutual fund that has no sales or redemption fees and generous Telephone switching privileges. Then there s the problem of taxes on capital gains every time you sell. You can Dodge this if you ire operating inside an individual retirement arrangement thai is not subject to current taxation. Otherwise Edleson says there is an alternative simply do nothing when the value averaging Rule indicate thai you should sell  under this approach you let inc surplus stand in the account for As Long As it take to have the s200 monthly increases catch of Wilh it. If there is still a surplus when the 10 years arc up no complaints you have exceeded your goal. This same variation lends itself Well to use with dividend reinvestment and Stock Purchase plans a popular tool for individual investors Edelson notes. In such plans Selling in Small amounts is often impractical or not allowed. An obvious objection to this whole arrangement pre sents itself readily you Are limiting what your Money can achieve. The better your fund performs the More potential gains you will miss out on. You won t get Rich Quick,1 Edleson acknowledges but the Point of the system is to encourage both buying at Low prices and telling 7 or at least not buying at High prices. There s Gold in them thar Frozen Hills firms mine alaskan glaciers for pure ice Anchorage Alaska not about 100,000 Glacier cover nearly s percent of this vast state. It s hard to Sec the ice cubes for the bergs. But enterprising businessmen have created a fledgling Industry marketing Glacier ice As an upscale approach to chilling the worm s drinks. Who would have thought that Perrier would be such a big Deal said state Commerce commissioner Toney Smith. Well this is Alaska s  Smith and other officials give credit for1 the new Industry to Mark Wilson general manager of Velco a Small manufacturing and chemical distribution company in Anchorage. One of wet co s divisions sold water treatment equipment in the Oil Fields. When Oil prices sctt in 19&6, they took Wilco and much of Alaska s Economy Down with them. But Witco also manufactured one gallon plastic milk containers. So thought Wilson Why not bottle pure Alaska Waier and ship it to the lower 48 slates Ano Asia to publicize the new product Wilson hit on the idea of marketing it with a chunk of from a Glacier. We thought it would be kind of fun and exciting for people to see a big chunk of ice in front of a grocery $1 on he said and we would sell our water Dacier tre a. Originally it was just kind of a sideline business thai generated a Little freight said Tim Dimond of the Dimond ice co. I Juneau another Ioc entrepreneur but the reaction was so favourable in Japan where the image of Alaska is one of purity that the business took off. Witco and another ice entrepreneur Jamie James of Seward sought out the lighter coloured ice that crashed into the sen from the upper portion of a Glacier. That ice is filled with tiny pockets of air and As it warms in a drink the air expands and cracks the ice giving off a distinct popping sound. When Dimond first took his Barge a Crane and a steel net Oul to Tracy Ann. South of Juneau last year he scooped up deep Blue icebergs 60.000-Pound chunks at a time. The ice comes from deep in a Glacier s Depths formed under great pressure. Because of its density it lasts twice As Long As ice made in a refrigerator the water from Alaska Glacier ice is As pure As any water that can be found on the face of the Earth said Jim Harper of a Pacific inc. In Seattle Dimond s joint venture partner. It s thousands of years old Long before there was any acid rain Long before we had any pollutants in the atmosphere. Because it s formed under such immense pressure that also adds an ability to protect the contents in july 1987, Dimond applied for a stale permit to collect inc ice. There was no precedent and certainly no regulation requiring it but Dimond wanted la assure japanese no colors of his Long term Access to the ice Fields. That s when ice harvesting became controversial. When this thing first started Over a year ago we just thought it was some kind of a Crank quite frankly said Bart Koehler executive director of the South East Alaska conservation Council in Juneau. But somebody wanted to plunk icebergs out of an area that is adjacent to designated wilderness. It s introducing a new Industrial use into an area thai was set aside to be protected from zilch Usei it turned out there was Little Koehler could do. The Tracy Arm Fords terror wilderness was on National Forest land but the stale controlled the water where the Dimond ice co. Sought its permit. The permit was granted on july 29, Dimond was directed to work away from the Glacier face and the Shore end not collect ice when tour boats wire operating. In addition to its overseas business Dimond ice has been making inroads on the West cent where its 7-Pound bags sell for about $2.so, according to Harper. The Home grown variety is about half thai Price distributors in new York new Jersey and Texas also have expressed interest in inc ice he said. It s really something of a phenomenon 1 said Robert poc director of the Alaska office  Trade. It s a Market Niche. 1 Don t think it s going to be an Industry that employs thousands in Alaska but maybe  just As important poc said is the reawakening of the Alaska business spirit. I think alaskans became a Little complacent after the Oil Boom he said