Money Management Executive Latest News

Analyzing the total valuation of the stock markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China, or BRIC markets, as compared to their combined gross domestic product, Morgan Stanley and Bloomberg conclude that the is still room for exponential growth in these emerging markets.

While one of the big trends in the mutual fund industry has been its embracement of sophisticated alternative investments, mutual funds and hedge funds are both about to become even more complex in the next year, the Financial Times reports.

Assets under management in China have grown an incredible 60% over the past three years, and while growth won’t continue at this rate, it will still increase at a clip of 24% a year over the next 10 years.

September flows into hedge funds were the third lowest this year, netting only $18.6 billion as some investors fled funds with subprime exposure, Reuters reports, citing data from TrimTabs Investment Research.

Renown portfolio manager Bill Miller of Legg Mason recently wrote to his investors in a letter that he is taking advantage of the depressed prices on financial services, housing and consumer stocks because he fully expects a turnaround, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Pimco Chief Investment Officer Bill Gross told CNBC that not only will the subprime crisis continue to another two years or longer, but that it will likely worsen.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission has warned the mutual fund industry to be responsible about its growth, marketing and advertising, and risk controls, and to be sure to hire adequate experts and cut back on short-term trading, which is fueling market speculation.

Lipper announced Tuesday that it has devised a method of rating target-date funds, which are hard to assess as a group since their asset allocations and glidepaths vary so widely and they themselves are structured as funds-of-funds, Reuters reports.

Morningstar has been working with mutual fund companies for the past year to develop a tool to permit investors to determine a fund’s exposure to derivatives, Dow Jones reports.

Beginning this Wednesday, Rydex Investments will launch six leveraged exchange-traded funds that will offer magnified or inverse-magnified returns of three major indexes, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, S&P MidCap 400 Index and the Russell 2000 Index, The Wall Street Journal reports. The funds will trade on the American Stock Exchange.