Mutual and Exchange Traded Funds
A friend you met a few years ago calls you regarding a job opportunity. It is about her family business, which her parents started as a general management consulting firm. The business recently has survived basically on the support provided by its real estate side, but your friend is not comfortable with the real estate side of the business, and wants to concentrate on the investments side. Your friend has been receiving many calls from her parents' business associates concerning investments in US firms. The idea would be to provide investment research to those business associates who, in turn, would resell it to their clients. The network is ready, and the contacts extend over several countries. Your friend's business model consists of offering a two-segment service model. The first segment would be a high-end advisory for investments in forward-looking firms from the San Francisco Bay Area in the area of technology, with proprietary intellectual property and growth prospects. This service would apply fundamental, company analysis. You would help her the second segment, which would involve providing information, namely rankings and recommendations, with respect to attractive firms under the label "industry/sector/specialty." The business associates would resell this "intelligence" to their clients, and perhaps assist them in managing their portfolios. The costs would have to be kept rather low, so lengthy company-by-company analyses, expensive databases, or custom-made portfolio optimizations are out of the question. Your friend is thinking about getting started with something economical and straightforward: to examine major holdings in mutual funds (MF) and exchange trading funds (ETF) in different industry/sector/specialty investing areas. You would join one of the several groups your friend has already formed. Each group has to select two industry/sector areas, determine the best MFs and ETFs in those areas, and report their major holdings. You should show the holdings of each MF and ETF in the selected industries/sectors and provide a two-page summary including a ranked list of the top (6-8) firms in each sector, based on the MF and ETF holdings. Please place your summary information at the front of your report. This is her suggested structure and length: Summary findings and recommendations (two pages max) o Industry/sector area A (two pages --one page for MFs listings, one for ETFs listings) Holdings of the three most interesting MFs -- MF1, MF2, MF3 Holdings of the three most interesting ETFs -- ETF1, ETF2, ETF3 o Industry/sector area B (two pages --one page for MFs listings, one for ETFs listings) Holdings of the three most interesting MFs: MF1, MF2, MF3 Holdings of the three most interesting ETFs: ETF1, ATF2, ETF3 A friend you met a few years ago calls you regarding a job opportunity. It is about her family business, which her parents started as a general management consulting firm. The business recently has survived basically on the support provided by its real estate side, but your friend is not comfortable with the real estate side of the business, and wants to concentrate on the investments side. Your friend has been receiving many calls from her parents' business associates concerning investments in US firms. The idea would be to provide investment research to those business associates who, in turn, would resell it to their clients. The network is ready, and the contacts extend over several countries. Your friend's business model consists of offering a two-segment service model. The first segment would be a high-end advisory for investments in forward-looking firms from the San Francisco Bay Area in the area of technology, with proprietary intellectual property and growth prospects. This service would apply fundamental, company analysis. You would help her the second segment, which would involve providing information, namely rankings and recommendations, with respect to attractive firms under the label "industry/sector/specialty." The business associates would resell this "intelligence" to their clients, and perhaps assist them in managing their portfolios. The costs would have to be kept rather low, so lengthy company-by-company analyses, expensive databases, or custom-made portfolio optimizations are out of the question. Your friend is thinking about getting started with something economical and straightforward: to examine major holdings in mutual funds (MF) and exchange trading funds (ETF) in different industry/sector/specialty investing areas. You would join one of the several groups your friend has already formed. Each group has to select two industry/sector areas, determine the best MFs and ETFs in those areas, and report their major holdings. You should show the holdings of each MF and ETF in the selected industries/sectors and provide a two-page summary including a ranked list of the top (6-8) firms in each sector, based on the MF and ETF holdings. Please place your summary information at the front of your report. This is her suggested structure and length: Summary findings and recommendations (two pages max) o Industry/sector area A (two pages --one page for MFs listings, one for ETFs listings) Holdings of the three most interesting MFs -- MF1, MF2, MF3 Holdings of the three most interesting ETFs -- ETF1, ETF2, ETF3 o Industry/sector area B (two pages --one page for MFs listings, one for ETFs listings) Holdings of the three most interesting MFs: MF1, MF2, MF3 Holdings of the three most interesting ETFs: ETF1, ATF2, ETF3
