Portfolio

Former Wasatch Portfolio Managers Robert Gardiner and Blake Walker, who formed Grandeur Peak Global Advisors, have launched their first two mutual funds: the Grandeur Peak Global Opportunities Fund and the Grandeur Peak International Opportunities Fund.

In light of the continued market volatility, Russell Indexes is expanding its Defensive and Dynamic Indexes to cover all 10,000 stocks that it tracks around the world.

TD Ameritrade Institutional announced a new options trading, education and support package for advisors Thursday.

Vanguard has filed with the SEC to offer the Vanguard Target 2060 Retirement Fund for those currently 18 to 20 years old, and early next year will merge the Vanguard Target Retirement 2005 Fund and the Vanguard Target Retirement Income Fund, as their allocations have become nearly identical.

Investors contributed $748 million to Fidelity Charitable, the largest donor-advised fund in the U.S., in the first nine months of 2011, a 23% increase from the first three quarters of 2010. Thus, the fund is on course to receive the largest amount of contributions in its 20-year history, Fidelity said.

Investors pulled $3.93 billion from long-term mutual funds in the week ended Oct. 19, the Investment Company Institute said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day higher, up 162.42 points, or 1.39%, reverses most of the previous day’s losses. The Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index gained 144.61 points, or 1.14%.

Here are five of the most common scams that advisors and their clients either managed to avoid or fell victim to this year.

Advisors and their investor clients should be on the lookout for these popular scams. According to the North American Securities Administrators Association, here are five of the most common scams that advisors and their clients either managed to avoid or fell victim to this year.

Mutual fund managers prided themselves on sticking to their investment mandates early on in the financial crisis of 2008. This, even as the average U.S. stock fund fell nearly 30% in value. They counseled investors to do the same. Three years later, there is a new direction for funds: the flexibility to go anywhere, to pay closer attention to macroeconomic and market trends, and to even hunker down in cash.