Money Management Executive Latest News

Nasdaq today is set to launch a new, private stock market called the Portal Market for super-wealthy investors with $100 million or more in assets, the Washington Post reports.

The strategy known as 130/30, whereby a fund takes both long and short positions, can produce strong results but is highly dependent on the skills of the portfolio manager, Dow Jones reports, citing a study by Merrill Lynch.

Pensions are becoming rarer and rarer in the United States, the Los Angeles Times reports. Two-thirds of employers that offer pensions plan to freeze them to new hires or eliminate them altogether over the next two years, according to a survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mercer Human Resources Consulting.

William Blair Investment Management has hired Patrick J. Sheppard as chief operating officer. He comes to the firm from The Boston Company Asset Management, where he held the same title.

John Hancock College Savings has launched a “back-to-school” campaign to promote its John Hancock Freedom 529 plan.

Funds are divesting holdings of companies in Sudan, and activists credit their campaign to persuade them to do so, Reuters reports. However, institutional investors and mutual funds still have billions of dollars invested in companies that do business in Sudan, or have ties to companies that do.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has distributed $55.6 million to 200,000 Banc One investors who were harmed by fraudulent market timing.

After making a name not only for Fidelity but the entire mutual fund industry in the 1980s, the $42.8 billion Magellan Fund is, once again, beating its peers under the management of Harry Lange, The Wall Street Journal reports. So far this year, it has beaten 83% of its growth peers, returning 9.9%--a full 6.3 percentage points ahead of the S&P 500. In fact, 63% of Fidelity’s funds are beating their peers so far this year, compared to only 46% a year ago.

While mutual fund companies and investment banks have had meteorologists on their trading desks for almost 30 years, the practice apparently is increasing-affecting portfolio managers' trading decisions not only of commodities, power, utilities, agriculture and energy securities, but also consumer goods, transportation, construction, infrastructure, shipping and leisure. In addition, in the past 10 years, the insight of meteorologists on the trading floor has led to the development of weather risk management tools-futures, derivatives and insurance.

After almost five years, American Century Ultra fund manager Wade Slome will leave the Kansas City firm, according to the Kansas City Star. Slome, 37, plans to open his own investment firm in California. His resignation is effective Aug. 31. Stephen Lurito, who joined American Century last month after 22 years with MUUS Asset Management and Warburg Pincus Asset Management, will head the $12 billion fund until a successor is chosen. The Ultra fund is the Kansas City-based company’s largest. Ted Telfords, an 11-year American Century Veteran, will remain with Ultra, along with Investment analysts Bill Monroe, Terry Foster, Tim Miller and Matt Weight. The 26-year-old ultra fund is a large-capo growth portfolio. The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.