Portfolio

Since the stock market decline a year ago, there has been much talk of permanent decrease in investors' risk tolerance. Many investors' losses were staggering, goes the refrain, so their tolerance for risk will, for the foreseeable future if not a generation, be substantially lower.

Fidelity Investments has augmented its international trading platform, enabling retail investors, advisers and brokers to trade foreign stocks and currencies in real time. The platform gives retail investors access to 12 foreign markets and eight currencies, along with third-party research, news, real-time market data and quotes, and telephone access to international trading specialists 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Following up on President Obama's mandate for change, regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently crafted a report that details their plans to harmonize the regulation of futures and securities.

Federated Investors reported third quarter earnings of $57 million, or 56 cents a share, down 1% from $56.2 million, or 52 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue declined 4% to $293.6 million, as the firm absorbed fees on some of its mutual fund to maintain $1 net asset values.

Janus reported third quarter earnings of $8.2 million, or five cents a share, a 68% decline from the $25.4 million, or 16 cents a share, it earned in the year ago. Revenue declined 17% to $227.6 million.

Legg Mason earned $45.8 million, or 30 cents a share, for the second fiscal quarter of 2010, compared to a loss of $108.7 million, or 77 cents a share, a year earlier. The firm’s assets under management rose 7% from the previous quarter to $702.7 billion but were down 17% from a year earlier.

Barclays Wealth jumped into the active exchange-traded fund pool this month, launching a family of eight actively managed ETFs geared toward high-net-worth investors.

T. Rowe Price reported its third quarter earnings fell 13% to $132.4 million, or 50 cents a share, down from $152.4 million, or 56 cents a share, in the third quarter of last year. Its revenue of $498.1 million narrowly beat analyst consensus of $496 million.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is planning to move ahead and pass new money fund rules by the end of the year and has not ruled out a floating net asset value, Sarah ten Siethoff, senior counsel in the SEC’s division of investment management, told the 15th annual Money Fund Forum.

Investors continued to plow money into long-term mutual funds, investing $6.8 billion in the week ended Oct. 14, the Investment Company Institute said.