Portfolio

The municipal market for the month of February continued its upswing in new issuance of long-term bonds from one year earlier.

Fidelity Investments has launched an initiative dubbed “Thinking Big,” for publicly promoting the research of its investment analysts and experts. The firm will launch the initiative in conjunction with its sponsorship of the 2012 TED conference, an annual event that brings together global thought leaders.

Bank of America has added a new investment offering to its Merrill Edge program for mass-affluent investors.

Independent advisory firm French, Wolf and Farr has increased its AUM after taking on Piedmont Asset Management.

Bill Gross and his team of bond specialists at Pacific Investment Management Company built the Total Return Fund into the world’s largest mutual fund, with more than a quarter-billion dollars in assets. Can he (and they) repeat the trick, with a Total Return exchange-traded fund?

The shares finished trading on their first day worth $99.96. Altogether, 550,375 shares changed hands on the NYSE Arca electronic exchange.

For some companies, there was a lot to love about February. Here’s an interactive slide show highlighting the 5 best-performing Dow component stocks for February 2012.

Bill Gross and his team of bond specialists at Pacific Investment Management Company built the Total Return Fund into the world’s largest mutual fund, with more than a quarter-billion dollars in assets. Can he (and they) repeat the trick, with a Total Return exchange-traded fund?

It can be challenging - but enjoyable - advising those who are used to giving advice themselves.

We applaud diversifying into different asset classes, but memories of recent losses are keeping too many people out of the equity markets.