No doubt one of many currently being played out by many families not only in Australia, but world wide as the current financial crisis deepens and takes a lot of "ordinary people's" wealth with it.
While very sad, I am slightly bemused by the fact that many on this thread seem to only blame ANZ. There has been little anger directed at the Opes Directors (who appear to have gone missing in action) or Merrill Lynch (as the other secured creditor) or ASIC for failing to deal with the problem.
It seems it is only Mike Smith and ANZ that seem to have blood on their hands.
I have to again come back to my earlier thread about self responsibility and risk. Why didn't the writer put his money into a bank for 3 months? Given that it was everything he owned, why run a higher risk by putting it into Opes? He could have earned 7.5% on his money in a fixed term deposit. Did he really understand (or take the time to underestand) the risks associated with Opes? Why did he wait 3 months without buying a share? Why put EVERYTHING he owned into Opes?
All interesting questions I would have thought and while I am extremely sympathetic to the writer's plight, it goes to the heart of taking (at least some) self responsibility for your own investment decisions and not trying to foist full blame onto others.
ANZ Price at posting:
$19.03 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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