Alternative investments

Tradar said its portfolio management software will become available as a hosted service for fund managers, through Eze Castle Integration.

Morningstar has added 10 alternative investment categories to its classification system, eight of which cover exchange-traded funds and two the broad universe of funds.

Aberdeen Asset Management has launched the Aberdeen Emerging Markets Debt Local Currency Fund in response to growing interest in the asset class, as investors look to diversify their fixed income exposure.

Genworth Financial Wealth Management has introduced a streamlined approach to diversifying investments through its Genworth Portfolio Solutions (GPS).

Hatteras Funds has added two single strategy hedged mutual funds to its lineup of alternative mutual fund products. They are the Hatteras Long/Short Equity Fund and the Hatteras Long/Short Debt Fund.

Intech has launched the Alpha Capture Index strategy as a passive alternative to capitalization-weighted indexing. Intech says the strategy has the potential to outperform a market-cap-weighted index and is more stable than an equal-weighted portfolio.

ProShares has launched two new exchange-traded funds, the ProShares Ultra High Yield and the ProShares Ultra Investment Grade Corporate funds. The firm says it is they are the first ETFs to offer exposure to the two fixed income asset classes.

Global X Funds has launched the Global X Waste Management ETF, which will evenly divide its holdings in hazardous and non-hazardous waste and recycling companies.

State Street Global Advisors has launched a new exchange-traded fund based on a corporate bond index weighted according to three quantitative measures: return on assets, interest coverage and current ratio.

ProShares has launched two inverse Treasury exchange-traded funds, the ProShares UltraShort 3-7 Year Treasury ETF and the ProShares Short 7-10 Year Treasury ETF.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has launched the Goldman Sachs High Yield Floating Rate Fund. It invests in below investment-grade, floating-rate loans and other variable-rate securities issued by U.S. and foreign companies. The fund’s investment objective is to generate a high level of current income.

Columbia Management has launched two absolute-return funds, the Columbia Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Fund and the Columbia Absolute Return Enhanced Multi-Strategy Fund. Both funds use multiple strategies to reduce portfolio volatility.

ProShares has launched the ProShares Short Investment Grade Corporate exchange-traded fund, the first inverse investment grade corporate bond exchange-traded fund, which seeks to provide 1x the daily performance of the Markit iBoxx $ Liquid Investment Grade Index.

While corporations, consumers and governments are trying to get back on their feet following the global recession, continued volatility is pushing investors, especially high-net-worth investors, to pour their money into alternatives, which allow for broader diversification, said Gurinder Ahluwalia, president of Genworth Financial Wealth Management, at a media roundtable on diversification and new asset classes in New York.

ProShares has launched an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that will provide investors inverse exposure to the high yield bond market‹a first for the market, the Bethesda, Md.-based ETF manager said in a statement today.

Direxion has launched three single-inverse fixed income exchange-traded funds to permit investors to wager on decreases in interest rates. They are the Total Bond Market Bear 1x Shares, the Daily 7-10 Year Treasury Bear 1x Shares and the Daily 20+ Year Treasury Bear 1x Shares ETFs. They seek 100% of the inverse of the daily performance of, respectively, the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, NYSE 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Index and NYSE 20-Year Plus Treasury Bond Index.

Prudential Investments has launched two new real estate funds, the Prudential U.S. Real Estate and the Prudential International Real Estate funds, complementing the existing Prudential Global Real Estate and Prudential Real Assets funds.

Virtus Investment Partners has launched three new funds: the Virtus Allocator Premium AlphaSector, the Virtus Global Premium AlphaSector and the Virtus Global Commodities Stock funds.

Variable annuity assets in the U.S. reached an all-time record of $1.5 trillion in 2010, with fourth-quarter sales rises 18% year-over-year to $37.6 billion, the Insured Retirement Institute announced Monday.

Russell Investments and Research Affiliates have launched a new index series based on Research Affiliates’ fundamental index methodology, whereby components of the index are selected by fundamental measures of company size rather than market capitalization.