Frederick S. Mates

Who is 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.

The Mates Investment Fund was ahead of its time in one respect: it ostensibly promoted "Socially Responsible" mutual funds, which later was successfully promoted by the Calvert family of mutual funds.

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 30, 1982.