Alternative investments

Janus has launched the Janus Aspen Moderate Allocation Portfolio, specifically designed for the insurance channel. The portfolio is a fund-of-funds that will invest in other Janus products with a target of 60% of its underlying holdings in stocks and 40% in fixed income.

In an effort to expand its annuity business, The Hartford is expanding into the structured settlement annuity market, providing tax-free payouts to people who receive settlements related to a workers’ compensation or personal injury claim.

Van Eck Global has introduced the Market Vectors Mortgage REIT Income ETF (ticker: MORT).

Keating Capital, a pre-IPO fund, concluded its public offering, raising $86.8 million. Next, the fund plans to list its stock on Nasdaq by the end of the year.

Nationwide Funds Group has launched the Nationwide Alternatives Allocation Fund, a passively managed mutual fund that will invest in seven alternative asset classes: global real estate, emerging market debt, emerging market stocks, commodities, TIPS, international bonds and high-yield bonds.

Forward Management has introduced no-load share classes on three of its real estate and infrastructure funds, in an attempt to make alternatives more accessible to investors.

UBS Investment Management has launched two ETRACs exchange-traded notes linked to the performance of the UBS Internet IPO Index, which is comprised of 20 social networking, Internet software and Internet services stocks that have gone public within the last three years.

BlackRock plans to get active in active ETFs, its chairman and chief executive said Wednesday.

AQR Capital Management has launched the AQR Multi-Strategy Alternative Fund, a no-load mutual fund that seeks to deliver absolute returns by investing in a broadly diversified portfolio of alternative strategies traditionally only available through hedge funds.

ProShares has launched the ProShares Hedge Replication ETF, benchmarked against Merrill Lynch’s hedge fund replication model.

Barclays Bank has launched the iPath U.S. Treasury 5-Year Bull Exchange Traded Note and the iPath U.S. Treasury 5-Year Bear Exchange Traded Note.

American workers lapsed into investing inertia after the market collapsed in 2008, but standing still actually benefited many and helped their workplace retirement plan balances rebound by 31% between 2007 and 2010, Vanguard said.

Euro Pacific Asset Management has launched the EuroPac Hard Asset Fund¸ designed to mitigate against inflation and the dollar devaluation.

Investors are interested in innovative investments that meet specific principals, according to a study by CREATE Research, commissioned by Citi’s global transaction services and Principal Global Investors.

Despite a skittish U.S. economy, most commercial real estate investors remain upbeat and cautiously optimistic about the industry’s future, according to the PwC Real Estate Investor Survey. In fact, the majority continues to invest in all sectors of commercial real estate, as they continue to see signs that the industry’s fundamentals are stabilizing.

Direxion has launched five new daily leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds, focused on sectors that have attracted large assets and have high trading volume.

IndexIQ has launched the IQ US Real Estate Small Cap ETF (ticker: ROOF), which it says is the first ETF focused on small-cap U.S. real estate.

Neuberger Berman has launched the Neuberger Berman Global Allocation Fund, a flexile, go-anywhere fund designed to serve as the core of an investor’s portfolio.

Alternative investment advisor Equinox Fund Management has launched the Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund, a market-neutral mutual fund that aims to exploit inefficiencies in the futures contracts market by taking both long and short positions.

Global X Funds has launched the Global X SuperDividend ETF, an exchange-traded fund that offers exposure to 100 global companies that rank among the highest dividend-yielding equity securities in the world.