Portfolio

Many active fund managers get paid to predict where the market is headed—and to get there a step or two ahead of their rivals.But the management of Allianz Global Investors’ Global Investment Solutions Conservative Allocation mutual fund has shunned that approach, and in doing so achieved remarkable success.

AllianceBernstein has launched the AllianceBernstein International Discovery Equity portfolio, a bottom-up fund that will look for small- and mid-cap companies outside the U.S. with strong prospective earnings growth, valuation and management.

Despite the growing argument that buy-and-hold investing and diversification no longer make sense, Burton Malkiel, Princeton economics professor and author of “A Random Walk Down Wall Street,” writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Thursday that is absolutely not true.

IndexIQ, an innovator in hedge fund replication and index-based alternative investments, has partnered with institutional consulting firm Rocaton Investment Advisors to bring alternative investments to small and mid-sized 401(k) plans. Rocaton has also made a minority investment in IndexIQ.

Across all income groups, retirement income from employer-sponsored retirement plans is more prevalent among retirees today than in 1975, when sweeping new retirement plan regulations were enacted, most notably the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, according to a report from the Investment Company Institute.

How are market conditions? Where are things headed? It all depends on who you listen to and whose surveys you trust.

Mark Notkin, portfolio manager of the $12.8 billion Fidelity Capital & Income Fund, the best-performing high-yield fund in the past five years, says the rally in junk bonds is over. His fund has delivered an average of 9.9% a year and is up 14% this year.

Erik Weisman, investment officer and portfolio manager at MFS Investment Management, had one question for journalists gathered at the firm’s 21st annual investment outlook: “Where’s the V?”

When it comes to hedge funds winning institutional business, the amount of resources dedicated to client service means everything and more, a study of mid-sized firms has concluded.

Asset managers are in a race to develop products that provide guaranteed retirement income, effectively duplicating annuities.