Healer doles out radical medicine to sick business

Kevin Parker, the head of Deutsche Asset Management, is using alternative investments, including private equity and hedge funds, to help revitalise the asset manager which had suffered outflows in the three previous years

• Call option scheme for Japan investors

Overview: A refuge from dollar’s decline

As the dollar falls, investors in ETFs are discovering a variety of ways to profit betting against the greenback

The long and the short of it

Trying to improve on the clunky name, some firms have tried marketing them as an “edge strategy”, “flex strategy” or “short extension” funds.

Dangers that lurk in 401(k)s

The average American with a 401(k) retirement savings account saw it grow by 8.7% a year in the seven years to 2006. That information makes it sound as if all may be well with 401(k) retirement plans

Holiday route to art know-how

If investing in art is your main interest, lots of organisations will teach you how to do it. Collectors, and those who aspire to own art, can now take intensive courses in art history and investment on location

Tweaks in indices that boost gains

Enhanced indexing is not automatically a better way to invest. Making portfolio adjustments pushes up fund expenses by as much as seven times the cheapest index funds. So these strategies must generate alpha that more than covers this additional cost

Alternatives to minimum tax

The federal alternative minimum tax (AMT) is an additional tax that some wealthy investors must pay on top of income tax. There are ways round the levy on the ultra-rich

How to allocate your assets

Portfolio management is getting more sophisticated. How far asset allocation has developed can be seen from the composition of modern indexes.