Portfolio

Retail investors will pay $8.95 per online trade in stocks or non-Schwab ETFs.

This is the latest in a growing list of Roth IRA conversion education tools offered by financial services companies.

The current level of confidence continues to be mostly associated with overall performance of the markets.

As if municipal bond closed-end funds needed any more help, the year-end tax selling that customarily plagues the industry every December took the year off in 2009.

During the market downturn, the only takers for REITs seemed to be institutions, which currently comprise 80% of the owners of REITs. Ten years ago, institutional investors held 40% of all REIT shares.

In a survey of 1,000 people, Putnam Investments found the majority expect the economy to rebound in 2010 but that they are still planning to save more in the New Year.

In a survey of 1,000 people, Putnam Investments found the majority expect the economy to rebound in 2010 but that they are still planning to save more in the New Year.

AQR Capital Management has launched the AQR Managed Futures Strategy Fund to appeal to investors’ and advisers’ increased interest in alternative investments in the wake of the Great Recession. AQR funded the no-load fund, available to retail and institutional investors, with $10 million in seed money.

Bob Doll, global chief investment officer for fundamental equities at BlackRock, said U.S. corporate earnings growth—fueled by productivity gains, expanding markets in the developing world, low inflation and a declining dollar—should jump about 20% this year. As a result, stock prices, as represented on the Standard & Poor’s 500, should rally another 12% from their Jan. 4 open of 1116.56, he said.

Vanguard will pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing it of racial bias against a black financial planning candidate and overall bias in its hiring practices.