Portfolio

It’s not just plain-vanilla equity funds that investors are bailing out of. In the past two months, investors have redeemed 16% of assets from exchange-traded notes, bringing assets under management from a peak of $7.3 billion in June to $3.9 billion today, The Wall Street Journal reports. The rest of the decline is due to falling prices in commodity and currency ETNs.

Van Kampen Funds on Tuesday launched the family of Van Kampen Retirement Strategy Funds. The nine target-date funds, with target retirement dates in five-year increments between 2010 and 2050, plus a fund for those already retired, are based on investment strategies determined by Russell Investments and are designed to provide broader diversification and lower risk than other target-date funds.

American Century this week will inform 17% of its workforce, or 270 employees, that they are being let go due to the aftershocks of the credit crisis, declining assets due to redemptions and falling stock prices, and declining investor confidence and a weakening economy.

In a poll of bank wealth managers a day after Barack Obama was elected to become the 44th president of the United States, 50% said they expect their high-net-worth clients to be negatively impacted by the new administration, SEI found. Twelve percent said they expect a positive impact, but 38% said they were sure whether it will be positive or negative.

While the average equity mutual fund is down 48% and the average hedge fund is down 20% so far this year, one uncanny hedge fund manager, Bernard V. Drury of Drury Capital, has posted incredible year-to-date gains of 60%, The New York Times reports.

Curian Hires Ramsier as Divisional VP for the West

Reserve Funds has begun making distributions to shareholders of its Primary Fund at an initial rate of 50 cents on the dollar, and its president said the company plans to pay the rest soon.

Direxion Funds hopes that with credit tight, eight 300% leveraged exchange-traded funds it is offering, both on the long and the short side, will resonate with investors. However, while the funds could deliver tremendous returns, they have an equal shot at big losses.

ICI Forms Money Fund Working Group

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to begin working on passing an economic stimulus package even before he takes office.