Alternative investments

You’ve heard of structured products. These largely were (and are) complex securities based on lots of streams of cash in underlying loans whose flows were not well predicted. There was a credit crisis associated with them in 2008.

The number of listed exchange-traded funds grew 20.6% in 2011 and the number of listed exchange-traded notes grew 53.8%, according to U.S. figures developed by the Exchange-Traded Fund Association.

With yield and risk investors' two biggest concerns today, Nuveen Investments has launched a microsite focusing exclusively on income (http://www.nuveen.com/income/default.aspx).

Drum roll, please.

Did you have the foresight to invest heavily for your clients in Pacific Investment Management Co.'s 25-year zero-coupon U.S. Treasury exchange-traded bond fund, one year ago?

Investors added $117.6 billion to their holdings in exchange-traded funds in 2011. That is almost identical to 2010, when they added $118.7 billion, and 2009, when they added $119.4 billion. But the value of their holdings only increased $51.4 billion, because the value of their shares fell, according to the Exchange Traded Fund Association.

Knight Capital Group has launched two actively managed exchange-traded funds run by subsidiary Astor Asset Management. The funds are the Astor Active Income ETF Fund and the Astor SP Growth ETF Fund.

Versus Capital will launch a retail mutual fund-of-funds that invests directly in income-producing real estate—a type of investment typically only available to institutional investors. Callan Associates will serve as sub-advisor.

Global X Funds is liquidating eight of its exchange-traded funds, including a fund focused on emerging markets and another on waste management. All of the funds trade on NYSE Arca. The eight closings, scheduled for Feb. 27, with the last day of trading on Feb. 16, are:

TIAA-CREF has launched the TIAA-CREF Global Natural Resources Fund, aimed at providing investors with diversification, a hedge against inflation and an opportunity to participate in the growing demand for resources among the world’s seven billion population.

PHOENIX, Ariz.-Richard A. Ferri, the founder of Portfolio Solutions, spent much of his first day at the Super Bowl of Indexing conference here trying to collect names.

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Richard A. Ferri, the founder of Portfolio Solutions, spent much of his first day at the Super Bowl of Indexing here trying to collect names.

Principal Funds has launched the Principal Global Multi-Strategy Fund, which will invest in alternative strategies through specialist sub-advisors to provide income, while combating inflation and market volatility.

The International Securities Exchange said Thursday that it intended to provide venture capital to the exchange-traded product industry.

Asset management firms recorded average profitability of 28% through 2010 and the first half of 2011, according to a new McKinsey report.

Global X Funds has launched the Global X Social Media Index ETF (SOCL), which it says is the first ETF that will globally focus on social media companies. The fund will cover companies that provide social networking, file sharing and other web-based media applications.

Fidelity Investments has introduced two new emerging markets funds, the Fidelity Total Emerging Markets Fund and the Fidelity Emerging Markets Discovery Fund. The first fund invests in equities and bonds, the second in small- and mid-cap stocks.

BOSTON—“Emerging markets are just a niche asset class” persistently remains as one of the five biggest myths about investing in emerging markets, said John Flint, chief executive officer of HSBC Global Asset Management.

BOSTON—Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has three words for asset managers specializing in registered alternative investment products: Bring it on.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Gary Gensler said Monday he recused himself from the regulator’s probe of the failure of derivatives player MF Global, because “I didn't want my participation to in any way be a distraction.''