'Intelligent' ETF Features Index Enhancement

PowerShares Capital Management is starting an exchange-traded fund that blends active management with indexing. The PowerShares Zacks Micro Cap Portfolio follows the Zacks Micro Cap Index, which attempts to enhance the performance of the index by concentrating on particular stocks.

The manager reviews and adjusts the index weekly and rebalances on a quarterly basis, using quantitative analysis to select stocks with greater capital appreciation potential. Zacks Investment Research manages the index, which is equal-dollar weighted and contains between 300 and 500 of the smallest 2,500 stocks by market capitalization. The new fund launches on August 18 on the American Stock and Options Exchange.