
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 6, 1995                   TAG: 9501060092
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PROFESSOR FROM TECH HAS A SHOCKING OPINION

Virginia Tech Professor Don M. Chance compared investment in derivatives in financial markets with using electricity.

Both, he said, are ``very valuable to use, but you've got to understand what you're doing.''

And shocks - financial or electrical - are possible, he said.

Some people have abused derivatives, Chance said, but if used correctly, they are nothing to fear.

Chance, professor of finance and associate director of Tech's Center for the Study of Futures and Options Markets, said Thursday he agreed with Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan that use of derivatives won't ``bring down the banking system. I'm in complete agreement with that.''

by CNB