Portfolio

Equity funds saw outflows of $9.4 billion for the week of Jan. 4, 2012, according to numbers released by the Investment Company Institute.

How investors go about making decisions in uncertain and volatile markets can have long-lasting implications, especially when bias and emotion enter in. The field of behavioral finance has shown that human beings can’t be presumed to take the most logical, rational approach to investing. So if not logic, just what is affecting our decisions? A recent report from Robert W. Baird & Co.’s Private Wealth Management Research team outlines psychological and social factors that affect how we make financial decisions. Be aware of these factors to help you avoid some psychological pitfalls that regularly affect professional and amateur investors alike. Source: Robert W. Baird & Co.’s Private Wealth Management Research

Schwab Retirement Plan Services already serves 1.5 million workers saving for retirement, but hopes that its new Schwab Index Advantage service will increase participation even more by demystifying the 401(K) saving process.

The Internal Revenue Service’s initiative to determine whether municipal bonds are being initially offered at prices that fail to comply with tax requirements has left issuers upset and confused about the definition of issue price and what specific abuses the IRS is looking for.

With performance under par, hedge fund managers got smaller year-end bonuses for 2011, according to the Hedge Fund Compensation Report.

A date is set for the exchange-traded equivalent of the world's largest mutual fund to get going.

Drum roll, please.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 70 points to 12,462.47 Tuesday, the fourth positive session in six trading days so far this year. Tech stocks also perked up as the Nasdaq rallied up 26 points to finish at 2,702.50.

NYSE Euronext said it had not been notified by the European Commission of any “official decision” on its merger with Deutsche Boerse, after a pair of media reports that the nearly year-old deal will not be approved on anti-competition grounds.

With performance under par, hedge fund managers got smaller year-end bonuses for 2011, according to the Hedge Fund Compensation Report, released Tuesday.