Portfolio

According to a company memo, “a big driver of [Morgan Stanley's] future success will be the continued build-out of our sales and trading platform and, in particular, our strategy and footprint in fixed income."

For equity funds, 2010 was a solid year, with the average fund rising 16.57% and 98% of all equity funds in positive territory, according to Lipper. Sector equity funds rose 19.02%, U.S. domestic equity funds rose 17.14%, world equity funds were up 13.67% and mixed asset funds delivered 12.02%.

According to Wealth-X, the top executives at the ten biggest banks and asset managers on Wall Street have an average net worth of $210 million. Their combined net worth is at least $2.1 billion. Check out the top ten.

A majority of institutional investor, 55%, expect global growth over the next six months, up considerably from the 33% who felt this way in the third quarter, a survey of 97 institutional managers by Northern Trust found.

Matt Fink, former president of the Investment Company Institute, covers this and other frequently asked questions about the industry in the new edition of his book, “The Rise of Mutual Funds: An Insider’s View.”

Matt Fink was with the Investment Company Institute from 1971 to 2004 and served as its president from 1991 to 2004. He is the author of a history of mutual funds, “The Rise of Mutual Funds: An Insider's View,” (Oxford University Press, 2008). A new edition, covering the 2008 financial crisis and its impact on mutual funds, has just been published.

ETF Securities on Friday began trading its new exchange-traded product, the ETFS Physical Asian Gold Shares, on NYSE Arca.

The company indicated in a Thursday SEC filing it is postponing its plans to offer short-, intermediate- and long-term municipal bond index funds.

Assets total $2.796 trillion for the week ended Jan. 12.

Prudential Financial, Pimco, Nuveen Investments eye robust markets