National Financial stengthens several alliances

National Financial Services LLC, along with parent company Fidelity Investments, both of Boston, has strengthened their alliance program…

National Financial Services LLC, along with parent company Fidelity Investments, both of Boston, has strengthened their alliance program with eight firms.
They are Beacon Research, BenefitProtect, EverBank Advisor Services, Fixed Income Securities LP, Forefield Inc., NetWorth Services Inc., Seabury & Smith Inc. and thinkorswim inc.
The additions give National Financial’s clients access to Beacon Research’s fixed-rate tax-deferred annuity research; BenefitProtect’s health insurance for broker-dealers and independent representatives, including employees and families; EverBank’s mortgage and home equity products; Fixed Income Securities’ fixed-income resource and investment solutions for broker-dealers; Forefield’s NASD-filed presentations, newsletters and seminars; NetWorth Services’ NetBasis software to calculate adjusted cost for investments; Seabury & Smith’s insurance solutions for broker-dealer firms; and thinkorswim’s thinklink, an equity order management system for broker-dealers.

Greenwich Advisors adds an open-end fund
Greenwich (Conn.) Advisors LLC has launched the Greenwich Advisors India Select Fund, an open-ended fund that seeks to capitalize on growth opportunities stemming from India’s economic expansion.
The fund is open to direct investment by North American institutional and retail investors, and it focuses on long-term capital appreciation.
Greenwich Advisors, the fund’s adviser, has engaged State Bank of India Fund Management Private Ltd. in Mumbai as a subadviser to provide research and analysis in India with a team of nearly 300 investment and other professionals.
The portfolio for the fund typically consists of between 25 and 40 stocks, with most stocks held for at least one year. It focuses on sectors that may include software, pharmaceuticals, retail, infrastructure, real estate and manufacturing.

Ameristock offers Treasury ETFs
Ameristock Corp., of Moraga, Calif., has introduced a line of Treasury exchange traded funds, including Ameristock/Ryan 1 Year U.S. Treasury ETF, Ameristock/Ryan 2 Year U.S. Treasury ETF, Ameristock/Ryan 5 Year U.S. Treasury ETF, Ameristock/Ryan 10 Year U.S. Treasury ETF, and Ameristock/Ryan 20 Year U.S. Treasury ETF.
Many of the funds hold the most recently auctioned Treasuries for the maturity in question, rotating through new holdings as auctions are held, which allows them to work with the most liquid part of the market. They pay an accurate price on each maturity, indicating perceived interest rate risk, and have a 0.15% annual expense.

Adaptive Planning releases new software
Adaptive Planning of Mountain View, Calif., a business performance management provider, has released Adaptive Planning 4.0, its latest software.
The cornerstone of the release is a report builder module integrated into the Adaptive Planning suite that allows business users to create new reports and analyses by selecting relevant items from a menu and dragging them onto a graphical workspace.
It allows users to leverage pre-defined reports; to create new ad hoc reports by dragging and dropping key report elements; to develop multi-dimensional cross-tab reports; to explore trends within the data; to perform in-report calculations; and to view results in tables or graphical charts.
In addition, the program features Cell Explorer, which allows users to analyze any cell within their financial model.

DWS Scudder unveils alternative fund
DWS Scudder of New York, the U.S. retail division of Deutsche Asset Management, has launched the DWS Alternative Asset Allocation Plus Fund.
The open-ended mutual fund seeks capital appreciation by investing in alternative asset categories. Class A, C, S and institutional shares will be offered through intermediary advisers and institutions.
The fund, managed by Deutsche Asset Management’s quantitative strategies group, is structured as a fund-of-funds, with assets invested in a combination of underlying DWS funds, as well as other securities and derivative instruments.
It gives shareholders access to alternative asset categories and investment strategies such as market neutral, inflation-protection, commodities, real estate and emerging-markets assets.
The fund will use Deutsche Asset Management’s integrated Global Portable Alpha strategy when fund assets reach $50 million. The strategy is designed to add uncorrelated, consistent excess return to portfolios by taking advantage of inefficiencies in country equity and bonds, yield curve and currency markets around the world using a multi-manager, multi-style approach.
Robert Wang, a managing director at Deutsche Asset Manager, is the portfolio manager of the fund, and Inna Okounkova, a director, is co-manager.

New Asia fund aims for absolute return
Fabien Pictet & Partners Ltd., a specialist fund management company, has created the FPP Golden Asia Fund, with seed assets from Jade Absolute Fund Managers Ltd.
Both companies are based in London.
The fund will aim to achieve absolute return through investing in Asia ex-Japan equities and fixed income.
It will join FPP’s other hedge funds, the FPP Emerging Hedge Fund, Global Emerging Market Debt Hedge Fund, Seven Seas Emerging Europe and Middle East Fund, and the Korea and Taiwan single-country funds.
John Byun, co-manager of the FPP Three Kingdoms Korea Fund, will manage the new fund.

Fidessa merges two solutions into one
Fidessa group plc, a London-based trading systems, market data and connectivity solutions provider, has merged Fidessa and LatentZero Execution Management Service solutions into one product.
The new Fidessa LatentZero EMS solution is available as a standalone work station that can be connected to any buy-side order management system or fully integrated with Fidessa LatentZero’s buy-side OMS, Minerva.

Seascape launches no-load fund
Seascape Capital Management LLC, an investment manager based in North Hampton, N.H., has launched the Seascape Focus Growth Fund (proposed ticker symbol SEARX), its flagship no-load mutual fund. The no-load fund is now available to retail investors.
The fund is managed by James W. McCarthy, lead portfolio manager, and Monica A. Ness, co-portfolio manager.