Fund performance

Bank of America has sued two former bond managers at Bear Stearns, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, who unloaded shares in subprime mortgage instruments they personally held in bond funds just prior to those instruments losing $1 billion in value.

E-mails, letters and website messages from mutual fund companies to nervous investors are heavily on the rise, Rocky Mountain News reports. Across the baord, the message is: don’t quit the markets, for in the long term, the markets won’t quit you.

While leading banks, mortgage originators and brokers, insurers and investment banks have all taken serious hits from the financial crisis, investment management firms—most notably mutual fund companies—have been holding strong, buoyed by a steady stream of fees.

Despite the earth-shaking, “extraordinary” events in September, and the stock market declines “of historic proportions,” financial advisers are still telling investors to stay the course and predicting the financial crisis will continue as a recession through next year—but won’t worsen into a Depression, Money magazine and the Orlando Sentinel report.

While reports have surfaced in recent weeks of incredibly wide discounts on closed-end funds that signal undue risk, rather than buying opportunities, some financial advisers say that with a little homework, there are, actually, some wise buys to be had on closed-end funds, Dow Jones reports. Further, with most closed-end funds paying dividends, that is yet another strong case for considering such funds.

For many of the same reasons exchange-traded funds are so popular in bull runs, ETFs are appealing to investors in the market downturn; investors awaiting a turnaround in the economy, but not knowing which pockets will come out first ahead, are seeking broad market exposure, The Wall Street Journal reports.

WASHINGTON - Despite signs of renewed strength in the credit markets, the Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday unveiled a new program to provide more liquidity to money market mutual funds.

JPMorgan Investor Services, PNC and Principal Financial take top honors in Money Management Executive's 2008 Fund Operations Awards. Now in its sixth year, the program honors industry leaders in three categories: Leadership, Innovation and Efficiencies/Streamlining.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - Despite the recent daily thousand-point swings in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the understandable uncertainty among investors, Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) plans still remain American's dominant and trusted retirement vehicles.

NEW YORK — J.P. Morgan Investor Services, PNC and Principal Financial have been honored with first-place for Leadership, Innovation and Efficiencies/Streamlining, respectively, in Money Management Executive’s 2008 Fund Operations Awards.

Of the 8,000 hedge funds in existence, as many as one-third will close their doors, Emmanuel Roman, head of GLG Partners predicted at a conference on hedge funds in London, Dow Jones Reports.

“The market will recover. It always does. Just no one knows when,” Alan F. Skrainka, chief market strategist for Edward Jones told the Associated Press. “The important thing is to focus on the things that you can control, like the amount you’re investing and the quality of the investments that you’re buying.”

With losses mounting—the average hedge fund is down 10% this year—hedge fund investors are increasingly looking to head for the exits, and hedge funds are putting up barriers, Dow Jones reports.

Mutual of Omaha is now offering retirement advice in its 401(k) Toolbox, a service called Manage It For Me.

Morningstar Investment Services is offering three managed account services to provide investors with retirement income at three levels of risk and time ranges.

WASHINGTON – Despite signs of renewed strength in the credit markets, the Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday unveiled a new program to provide more liquidity to money market mutual funds.

State Street Corp.’s Investor Confidence Index declined by about a quarter from 75.7 in September to 58.2 in October. Compared to the sentiment in other regions of the globe, North Americans’ confidence is markedly lower. In Europe, it stands at 79.6, and in Asia, at 86.5.

Ameriprise Financial, which has sued Reserve Funds on charges that the fund company tipped off large institutional investors its Primary Fund had broken the buck, has asked a judge to release taped phone calls to customers on the day before the fund’s NAV fell below $1, Reuters reports.

Eighty-percent of board members at financial services firms believe they need better tools to evaluate investments, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ financial services practice found in a recent survey of financial services audit committee members. They believe that by being better equipped, they could reduce the chance of future industry instability.

Talking about the volatility of the stock market may not be as popular as trading jibes over sports scores, but more investors, certainly, are taking an interest in the incredible gyrations of the market.