Alternative investments

Fidelity Charitable has created an array of seven investment options offering diversification across asset classes and risk. In addition, Fidelity Charitable has created an online tool to help investors make investment decisions.

Credit Suisse has launched the Credit Suisse Global Equity Market Neutral ETN, its fifth alternative exchange-traded note.

Morningstar will begin ranking and researching managed ETF portfolios by the end of the year, the research firm announced at its second annual ETF Invest Conference in Chicago Thursday.

Analysts at Standard & Poor's are looking to exchange-traded funds rooted in individual countries as a vehicle for advisors and their clients to compensate for sustained weakness in the U.S. economy.

As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

As registered investment advisors and fee-based advisers are challenged by increasing market volatility and declines, they are turning to alternative investment classes and tactical allocation to protect their clients’ portfolios. This was the major finding of a survey of 500 professionals by Jefferson National.

The vast majority of retail advisers now use alternative products or strategies for their clients-but that number is a bit misleading, a new study finds.

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.