Portfolio

StockJungle.com of Culver City, Calif. has added its own contribution to a new concept in the industry, a concept StockJungle.com calls, "naked mutual funds."

Janus of Denver, Colo., the growth-oriented mutual fund company, is planning to offer its first value fund since 1988.

The Pioneer Group of Boston plans to open a junk bond fund that will incorporate assets from another high-yield bond fund, according to an SEC filing.

Alliance Capital Management LP of New York is tapping two of its hot fund managers to run a new fund. Alliance plans to offer its second value fund, the Alliance Disciplined Value Fund, according to a registration statement the fund filed with the SEC Nov. 3. The fund will be a so-called "deep value" fund, investing in the securities of companies that portfolio managers Paul Rissman and Frank Caruso believe are undervalued. Rissman and Caruso manage the Alliance Growth & Income Fund, which has four stars from Morningstar, the Chicago fund-rating firm.

Charles Schwab Corporation of San Francisco has introduced a mutual fund for people who want to donate to charitable organizations, joining a relatively small number of fund companies offering similar products.

IJL Wachovia of Winston-Salem, N.C. recently established the Wachovia Investment Fund, a portfolio managed by undergraduates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. IJL Wachovia provides $50,000 for students to invest, along with substantial institutional support.

Investors who use investment strategies that center on dollar-cost-averaging or asset allocation may be able to reap greater returns with a variable annuity than they can with mutual funds, according to a study released last month by the National Association for Variable Annuities.

When the going gets tough, fund advisers get creative.

NEW YORK - Exchange-traded funds, funds that invest a majority of their portfolios in a variety of stock market indexes, pose a serious challenge to closed-end equity funds, according to some industry analysts.

In the past two years, wirehouses like Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley and PaineWebber have introduced mutual funds that invest in stocks that are recommended by their firms' equity analysts.