Mutual funds

In an effort to offer actively-managed performance at a cost and risk more associated with an index fund, J.P. Morgan has introduced a hybrid fund, the SmartIndex Fund.

Bonus units on deferred load funds, launched this month by discount brokerages, have opened up a new front in price competition. Since the introduction of the first deferred load funds in Canada in 1987, all types of intermediaries -- whether full service advisors or discounters -- have collected exactly the same amount of commission paid directly to them by the fund companies.

Alpine Management & Research of New York has started the Alpine Realty Income and Growth Fund, its third focused real estate mutual fund.

When the Value Trends Funds began selling its new mutual fund the first week of January, fund officials claimed it was the first no-load mutual fund to invest in the golf industry.

A new mutual fund plans to combine two previously independent investing strategies- momentum investing and sector funds.

Fidelity Investments has started the Growth & Income II Portfolio, a new retail fund with similar investment policies to those of Fidelity Growth & Income, which was closed to new investors on April 3, 1998.

Federated Investors has opened the Federated Global Equity Income Fund (FGEIF), one of three of the firm's global funds. It seeks capital appreciation and income by investing in stocks of dividend-producing companies in the U.S. and abroad.

The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) of Washington, D.C. has introduced a continuously updated REIT index. Steven A. Wechsler, president and ceo of NAREIT, said the new index allows investors to better gauge industry performance and compare returns of individual REITs against the industry as a whole. NAREIT's index is the only REIT index to include all 211 REITs currently trading on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and the AMEX, Wechsler says.

Warburg Pincus Funds announced that it is launching a new no-load mutual fund called Warburg Pincus European Equity Fund, which will be managed by Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM).

A coalition of Midwestern Catholic organizations called the Catholic Fraternal Alliance is creating a new family of mutual funds that will be offered through a powerful distribution network.

Frederick R. Kobrick is hoping that a name change for his one-year-old growth oriented fund group will eliminate a potential drag on its success.

Mutual fund companies, which already offer check writing and money market funds that act a lot like savings accounts, are about to compete even more directly with banks to capture assets.

The first no-load golf mutual fund teed off on January 4.

Capital Management Sciences (CMS) of Los Angeles, a division of Data Broadcasting Corporation, has added a new cash management capability to its BondEdge portfolio analytics software package.

Strong Retirement Plan Services of Milwaukee has announced that participants in the firm's 401(k) plans will now have Internet access to their accounts through a new tool called Strong NetConnect.

The BT Quantitative Equity Fund may be a fund marketer's dream - a new equity product that has an interesting story, no peers and a great track record.

Oak Associates of Akron, Ohio has started the Red Oak Technology Select Fund, a non-diversified portfolio of common stocks of primarily technology companies. Red Oak joins White Oak Growth Stock Fund and Pin Oak Aggressive Stock Fund in Oak Associates' family of mutual funds.

Stein Roe & Farnham expects to be the first to offer a floating-rate bank loan fund in the no-load channel. The Stein Roe Floating Rate Income Fund is currently in a pre-subscription period which ends December 18. It will be offered to the general public soon after that.

TransNations Investments of New York is developing a new fund based on a proprietary Israeli equity index. The Amidex-35 Index Fund will invest in approximately three dozen Israeli companies that are traded on the Tel Aviv or U.S. stock exchanges. The no-load fund is currently in SEC registration and expected to be offered in February.

When Jim Atkinson, a director in charge of U.S. operations at Guinness Flight Investment Management, read the June issue of Wired magazine, he was impressed with an article about the Wired Index. The stock index, compiled by the magazine to chart the global economy of the information age, was promoted as the successor to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.