Portfolio

The coming year is shaping up to be a fresh start for alternative mutual fund shop Pyxis Capital.

To Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary L. Schapiro's mind, the current state of the money market fund business is "living on borrowed time."

With ears to the ground in more than 30 countries, Franklin Templeton's fund managers are ready to buck plenty of fixed income investing trends in 2012. Most notably, they plan to embrace active management of their funds, as well as global volatility.

The Principal Financial Group has entered into a definitive agreement to buy a 60 percent stake in Claritas Investments, Ltd., a Sao Paulo-based mutual fund and asset management company with more than $1.8 billion in assets under management.

The CBOE Futures Exchange reported that February 2012 was the second most-active trading month in its history with volume totaling 1,340,780 contracts.

Here’s an interactive slide show detailing the best investment ideas for this election year from seven financial advisors practicing throughout the country.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 28 points to finish at 12,980.30 Thursday while tech stocks lifted the Nasdaq 22 points to end at 2,988.97.

The much-awaited opening of trading in Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Total Return ETF arrived this morning. By noon, 345,800 shares had been traded. Missing from the ringing of the bell at the New York Stock Exchange: the fund’s manager, Bill Gross.

Wedbush Securities has launched a trading platform provider that the firm says will dramatically speed up trades for fund managers and other institutional investors, as well as give them better control over their transaction costs.

For some Dow components (and their investors), February was a heartbreaker. Here’s an interactive slide show highlighting the 5 worst-performing Dow component stocks for February 2012.