Dear Investor,

Just a short note to let you know that we are safe and back at work after a direct hit from Hurricane Ike. Our office building was closed last Friday (9/12) in preparation for the storm and again Monday (9/15) to recover from power loss and other damages. Our staff was in communication while out of the office and we were able to conduct essential business. Our telephone lines were out until today, but we were able to reroute calls to our cell phones.

We thank those of you who expressed concern for our well being. We send our thoughts and best wishes to all of our clients and their families who were affected by Hurricane Ike.

Unfortunately, we are having to cope with a second hurricane, this one on Wall Street. I suspect that we are presently in the eye of that storm and that much of the financial damage has already been done. A significant portion of the selling this past week seems to have been forced due to margin calls, driving prices of solid companies to unreasonably low levels. We’ll see. We’re intending to ride out this storm, but if any of you would prefer to shift to a capital preservation mode, please let me know.

Yours truly,

Jeff Friedberg
September 18, 2008