Jaffe Rips Bear Stearns’ Actively Managed Bond ETF

Nationally syndicated columnist Chuck Jaffe is on a roll this morning. Not only is he telling investors to think twice about jumping into a Warren Buffet fund clone (see following newsbrief, “Buffet-Trailing Sequoia Fund Reopens to Wonder of Investors,”) but he’s also warning investors about Bear Stearns’ new actively managed fixed income ETF. (See MME, “Actively Managed ETFs Face Another Delay: Bear Stearns’ Fund on Hold as Firm Put Up for Fire Sale,” March 24, 2008.)

“Why Why Why Would I Buy This” is the hidden meaning behind the fund’s ticker YYY, Jaffe says.

The problem with the fund is not the problems of the parent, or even of some of its asset-backed securities holdings, Jaffe writes. The problem is the whole convoluted idea of an actively managed fund, as Money Management Executive in its editorial pages has also long held.

There still is no such animal, Jaffe argues, for the Bear Stearns Current Yield Fund by its very investment mandate holds fixed income.