Ameritrade Holding Corp. in Omaha, Neb., now offers Ameritrade Institutional Services, designed to help financial planners and advisers manage their clients' assets and provide better value. Advisers may conduct either single account transactions or block trades, with no minimum level of assets or average account value. The system interfaces with most major professional planner software tools. AIS is also offering free Windows-based
account management software for financial planners and advisers.
Northern Trust
adds growth fund
* Northern Funds in Chicago has launched the Northern Growth Opportunities Fund, managed by Northern Trust Corp. The fund pursues long-term capital appreciation by investing in the stocks of rapidly growing companies of all sizes, with an emphasis on small and midsize companies. It seeks to identify companies exhibiting strong growth characteristics such as above-average sales and accelerating earnings growth. It can invest in any industry where growth potential appears particularly strong. The fund currently focuses on technology, consumer goods and health-care stocks. It is designed for aggressive, long-term investors who are willing to assume higher risks to pursue higher returns.
Morgan goes global with health care
* J.P. Morgan & Co. in New York has added the J.P. Morgan Global Health Care Fund to its sector fund lineup. Through a bottom-up stock selection process, the fund aims to capture the growth potential of the health-care sector by investing in a concentrated portfolio of securities across the global pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical technology and health-care-services industries. The fund is designed for equity investors who are looking to invest for three to five years with high risk tolerance. It also is designed for those who are looking to enjoy the flexibility to invest across world markets with access to a portfolio managed by an experienced investment adviser. The fund's total expense ratio is 1.5%.
The fund may also invest in futures contracts and other derivatives. Because the fund's investments are concentrated in health-care and related sectors, the value of its shares will be affected by factors peculiar to those sectors and may fluctuate more widely than that of a fund that invests in a broad range of industries.
Quant growth fund from Oppenheimer
* OppenheimerFunds Inc. in New York has introduced Oppenheimer Main Street Opportunity Fund. The fund aims for capital appreciation and will utilize a quantitative investment approach relying on such elements as macroeconomics, company performance and valuation criteria, and will invest across market capitalizations. It will be managed by Nikos Monoyios and Charles Albers, managers of Oppenheimer's flagship Main Street Growth and Income Fund. The minimum investment is $1,000; $250 for IRAs and other retirement accounts. Investors may purchase Class A, B, or C shares of the fund, which is available to investors in all states.
RS adds weekly research commentary
* RS Investment Management, formerly Robertson Stephens Investment Management, in San Francisco now posts weekly research commentaries on its website at www.rsim.com. These commentaries, entitled "Research in Motion," are based on discussions of fund managers and analysts at the firm's research meetings.
The weekly commentary will appear every Monday and can be viewed by clicking on the "Research in Motion" icon on the home page of the RS website.
RS Investment Management also offers the following features on its site: quarterly fund updates for all RS funds, quarterly audio market commentaries from all RS portfolio managers, monthly portfolio manager interviews, teleconference transcripts for financial advisers and transcripts of recent chat sessions.
