Money Management Executive Latest News

Knight Capital Group has launched two actively managed exchange-traded funds run by subsidiary Astor Asset Management. The funds are the Astor Active Income ETF Fund and the Astor SP Growth ETF Fund.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose 9.3 points in December to 64.5 (1985 = 100), following a 14.3-point rise in November, The Conference Board said Tuesday.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index rose 0.5% in November to 118.0 (2004 = 100), following a 0.9% rise in October and a 0.1% bump in September.

Federated Investors has reached an agreement to acquire Prime Rate Capital Management of London, a specialist in cash management and fixed income products. The company also has a family of UCITS, including the Prime Rate Sterling Liquidity Fund, Prime Rate Euro Liquidity Fund and Prime Rate U.S. Dollar Liquidity Fund.

Don’t rule out emerging market and high-end retail customers in 2012, according to a forward-looking analysis by Fidelity Investments’ Sector Portfolio managers. In coordinated press conferences this month, the managers pointed to numerous areas of growth they expect in the coming year.

With approval from the U.S. Justice Department in hand and approval from the European Commission still to be achieved, NYSE Euronext is looking for a period of relative quiet through the end of the year on its quest to merge with Deutsche Boerse.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has closed a loophole that previously allowed individuals to artificially inflate net worth before investing in unregistered securities offerings. Advisers are generally supportive of the change.

The MF Global collapse provides an important lesson concerning the effectiveness of the principal, or proprietary, banking model. Leading up to the financial crisis, principal banking had replaced slow-growing, client-focused agency banking as the dominant model for large banks. Institutions focused on executing transactions as principals for their own accounts instead of for their clients.

The population may be aging, but that hasn’t gotten a lot of Americans to plan for retirement. About 71% of Americans lack a formal investment plan to help them reach their retirement goals, according to one study.

Financial advisers will remember 2011 as “The Year of Volatility” or “The Year of Uncertainty,” according to a survey of 200 financial advisers polled by the SEI Advisor Network, an asset management and back-office administration service provider to financial advisers.