Scramble To Seal BGI Deal

In a nifty piece of reporting, the Wall Street Journal's Dennis Berman uncovers a last-minute effort by BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink to come up with $2.8 billion to close its recent agreement to purchase Barclays Global Investors.

The piece reads a bit like a mystery novel, with players racing throughout the Middle East to line up support. The final package paid by BlackRock, of course, was some $13.5 billion.

You can read the story here.

Fund Managers Scared Of ETFs

This is a fun story. At a convention of global fund managers, Reuters reports that the talk was about ETFs and the threat they pose to active fund managers. Who would've thunk, eh?

You can read the story here.

Is Fear Spreading Through Markets Again?

Speaking of fear, MarketWatch.com's Nick Godt notes that the VIX index is showing renewed signs of life.

But as the site's markets editor notes, that doesn't necessarily mean fear is back.

(A quick note: Check the next Active Indexer column, scheduled to run at IndexUniverse.com on Wednesday. Most volatility measures are lagging indicators. The Active Indexer has come up with his own forward-looking test of volatility.)

You can read the MarketWatch story here.