Investments

Investors often make the mistake of exposing themselves to too much risk in their portfolios or failing to take on enough risk for their investment timeline. Here are a couple of large-cap funds that might represent a happy and profitable compromise.

BOSTON - In today’s turbulent world, there will be plenty of investment opportunities, but also plenty of risk.

Market research firm TNS’ Investor Confidence Index, based on an early April survey of 1,551 adults with investable assets of $500,000 or more on their expectations for the next six months, declined to 113 from 119 in January.

Trust in the U.S. financial system has fallen to 20%in March from 26% in December, as measured by the Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index, which surveyed 1,007 adults to obtain the reading.

Orinda Asset Management has launched the Orinda Multi-Manager Hedged Equity Fund, a fund that seeks long-term capital appreciation with an emphasis on risk-adjusted returns and reduced volatility.

Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors LatAm Aggregate Fund ETF, which will track the BofA Merrill Lynch Broad Latin America Bond Index.

BOSTON - Managed accounts used to be for the wealthy, but in the last 18 to 24 months, they have become increasingly available to the mass affluent because of a reduction in costs and an increase in efficiency, said AJ Harper, managing director of Lockwood Advisors, an affiliate of Pershing, a BNY Mellon company, in an interview at the Money Management Institute annual conference here.

Community banks’ investment programs are not yet back to their pre-financial-crisis levels of success, but the numbers confirm that 2010 was a step in the right direction.

The previous minimum was $3,000 for eleven of the twelve funds in the series.

In the last 18 to 24 months these proudcts have become increasingly available to the mass affluent because of a reduction in costs and an increase in efficiency, said AJ Harper, managing director of Lockwood Advisors, an affiliate of Pershing, in an interview at the Money Management Institute annual conference.

Their plans are evidenced in a survey by Harris Interactive for Aberdeen Asset Management.

But investors redeem $1.9 billion from equity funds.

The “magic” 5% tax-free yield is ­sustaining strong demand from retail investors.

Putnam Investments is the inaugural recipient of the Innovation and Growth Forum’s Innovation Award for its suite of absolute return funds. The Forum was launched by Financial Advisor Magazine and Spectrem Group to help asset management firms with their post-economic crisis strategies.

The company has seven equal-weight ETFs, six of which have been launched since December.

Investment firms sparred with regulators during a Securities and Exchange Commission roundtable over the potential risk money market funds could pose to the financial system.

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Global X Funds has launched the Global X Fishing Industry ETF, which it says is the first exchange-traded fund to target the fishing industry. It will invest in commercial fishing companies that capture fish from the wild and aquaculture fish farming companies.

Global X Funds has launched the Global X Mexico Small-Cap ETF, which it says is the first exchange-traded fund to focus on Mexico’s small-cap companies.

The Investment Company Institute held its annual meeting of its membership in Washington, D.C. last week. Close enough to Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters that chairman Mary L. Schapiro could swing by and let the assemblage know that existing mutual fund distribution rules "can't be left to stand."