Fuzzy Math

The Wall Street Journal  has another article taking off from an original piece done nearly two weeks ago at TheStreet.com on how leveraged exchange-traded funds don't always provide the perfect mathematical returns that would seem readily apparent.

It's a fairly routine story that has been re-reported several times since the original popped up online. These reexaminations for investors of how inverse and leveraged ETFs work—and how their returns are calculated on a daily basis—have been showing up lately on the heels of huge distribution projections by Rydex and later ProShares for their leveraged ETFs. 

You can read the WSJ's version here.

Year In Review

An update of the Dow Jones Newswires' review of 2008 ETF performance can be found here.

Famed Vanguard Manager Neff Buying Stocks

It's always an interesting game keeping up with the more-renowned active fund managers. In this piece from Fortune, former Vanguard Windsor manager John Neff details how he's selling bonds and hunting for bargains in stocks. 

Just thought we'd mention it ... you can read the story here.

Top Managers Fall Hard In 2008

Perhaps even better on our entertainment scoreboard is this piece from Bloomberg News. It shows how big-name mutual fund managers who had successful years in 2007 tanked last year. 

Among the names included: Ken Heebner, Harry Lange and Mario Gabelli.

And there's a great quote from a Lipper analyst: "Even talented managers looked like newcomers."

You can read the story here.