Massachusetts regulators sent subpoenas to four brokerage firms July 31 seeking information about the way they sold inverse and leveraged exchange traded funds. The subpoenas were issued weeks after the firms restricted the sale of the products or stopped selling them altogether.
Despite the improved performance of its mutual funds, Fidelity Investments isn't likely to recapture the crown as the firm that controls the most long-term-fund assets anytime soon.
Although Putnam Investments' decision to lower the management fees for some of its mutual funds — and to link its fees on others to performance — didn't go unnoticed by financial advisers, many say that they will hold off putting their clients' money into Putnam's funds until they see signs of improved long-term performance
Exchange traded fund assets worldwide hit an all-time high of $862 billion at the end of July, 7% above the previous record of $805 billion set in April 2008, according to data released today from the London-based research team of Barclays Global Investors in San Francisco.
Low-cost mutual funds make up most of the assets in 401(k) plans, according to a study released yesterday by the Investment Company Institute, a Washington-based industry trade group.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC today announced restrictions on the sale of leveraged, inverse, and leveraged-inverse exchange traded funds by its brokers and advisers.
Assets of money market mutual funds declined by $215 billion, or 6%, in the second quarter, according to Crane Data LLC, a Westborough, Mass.-based research firm.
Massachusetts regulators sent subpoenas to four brokerage firms on Friday asking about their sales practices relating to inverse and leveraged exchange traded funds weeks after Edward D. Jones, Ameriprise, LPL and UBS restricting the sale of the products or stopped selling them altogether.
Mutual fund assets are on the rise and as a result, investor fees may not go up as much as analysts had expected, according to Chicago-based Morningstar Inc.
Investors bought more exchange traded funds in the first half of this year than in the comparable time period in 2008, according to Strategic Insight Mutual Fund Research and Consulting LLC.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is mulling setting position limits on physical commodities and is questioning whether swaps dealers should remain exempt from position limits.
Investors poured $11.05 billion into mutual funds for the one-week period ended July 22, according to the ICI.
There is a disconnect between how some of the largest mutual fund firms' brands are perceived by many advisers and the actual performance of the funds, according to a recent survey conducted by Cogent Research LLC of Cambridge, Mass.
The current pace of growth in the defined contribution arena could tilt the majority of mutual fund ownership to institutional investors by 2012, according to a report released late yesterday by Cerulli Associates Inc.
Given last year's investment results, especially in 2010 target date funds, there are many who question whether the target date fund concept itself is fatally flawed.
Consumer cyclical stocks, junk bonds, financial stocks and emerging-markets stocks were among the biggest losers last year, but during the first six months of this year, they propelled a handful of mutual funds to the top of the performance charts.
At least three brokerage firms have decided not to sell leveraged exchange traded funds a month after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. warned brokers that they “typically are unsuitable for retail investors” who hold them longer than a day.
Old Mutual Capital Inc. of Denver today announced a plan to eliminate about 45 administrative and sales positions over the next eight months as the firm looks to shrink its mutual fund lineup by about half.
A top index provider is considering offering its own lineup of exchange traded funds, but just what those funds would look like is a mystery.
FundQuest Inc. of Boston has expanded the offerings on its managed-accounts platform to include select alternative strategies.
