BARING BANK COLLAPSE, ORANGE COUNTY FIASCO: ANOMALIES OR
PORTENTS OF CHAOS? -- U.VA. EXPERTS OFFER INSIGHTS  

	Financial markets around the world were jolted last weekend
by the collapse of the British merchant bank Baring Plc, caused by
losses in derivatives trading totaling more than $1 billion.
Incredibly, the debacle was blamed on a single Baring securities
trader, described in some accounts as a 28-year-old Òrogue.Ó

	This astonishing news came less than three months after a
jolting $1.5 billion derivatives trading loss pushed the Orange
County, Cal., government investment fund into bankruptcy. During the
past year other funds and corporations have lost hundreds of
millions of dollars betting on these exotic trading vehicles.

	Are more shocks on the horizon? What damage could they cause
to institutions and markets? Can steps be taken to prevent them? For
insights on the situation, these experts from the business school
faculties at the University of Virginia are available:

	Robert I. Webb, an expert on market reactions to news events
and their interactions with derivatives, learned about investment
markets on the front lines of several trading floors as well as in
academic research. Webb is a former consultant to the World Bank
where he managed portfolios and traded debt instruments, a former
options and futures floor trader and researcher at the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange, and former senior financial economist at the
federal Office of Management and Budget and the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission. Webb is an associate professor at the McIntire
School of Commerce and is available at (804) 924-7570.

	Richard F. DeMong, professor of commerce and director of the
Center for Financial Services Studies at the McIntire School, is a
former bank executive and author of "New Financial Instruments: A
Descriptive Guide," published by the Financial Analysts Research
Foundation. DeMong has used the Orange County fiasco as a case study
in his classes. You can contact him at (804) 924-3227.

	Mark R. Eaker, professor of business administration at
U.Va.'s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, is the
author of "International Diversification and Hedging," and teaches a
course in valuation risk management strategy for corporate
executives. You can contact him at (804) 924-4811.

	For other information or assistance in reaching the faculty
experts, contact Tom Doran at (804) 924-6858 or 924-7116.


February 28, 1995