Individual Investors

Spiders and vipers and qubes - oh my. It's a jungle out there in the world of exchange-traded funds, and it's about to get more crowded. The first ETF roared onto the market in 1993 when the American Stock Exchange created the Standard & Poor's Depository Receipts trust, or SPDR, to mirror the S&P 500. Since then, more than 150 ETFs have been created, with about $211 billion in invested assets, according to the Investment Company Institute, an association of...

Health care technology company WellDoc Inc. is close to raising $5 million from individual investors that will allow it to expand its mobile applications for disease management. WellDoc, based in Baltimore, developed a mobile phone-based application that offers coaching to diabetes patients and allows them to wirelessly connect blood glucose meters to cell phones. The investment will allow the private company to continue offering that product, as well as to hire additional employees and develop its mobile application for patients with other diseases such as hypertension, cancer and asthma, said Jon Brilliant, WellDoc's chief executive officer.

Federal regulators are seeking at least $350 million in fines and penalties from Prudential Securities to settle charges of securities law violations stemming from the company's sales of limited partnerships in the 1980s, people with knowledge of the talks said.Negotiations over the settlement have been hectic but fluid, and the final cost of fines and penalties could rise to as much as $400 million before an agreement in principle is reached, these people said.Even the $350 million figure would be the most ever paid by an investment firm to settle charges of fraud in the retail brokerage business.

It was the one-year anniversary Tuesday of the day the stock market began to heal from its 57 percent downturn, and a traditional gift on such occasions, appropriately, is paper. Although the stock market has climbed 69 percent since March 9, 2009, individuals wonder if they can trust the paper gains they've experienced since the stock market ravaged their savings for almost two years. Individual investors, groomed by the financial industry to expect 10 percent average annual returns in the stock market, remain traumatized after devastation far worse than many advisers ever suggested was possible.

Citigroup Inc. agreed yesterday to pay a $100 million fine and buy back more than $7 billion in troubled fixed-income securities from individuals who have been stranded in the investments for most of this year. The settlement, with New York state Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo and other regulators, figures to put pressure on other banks to cut similar deals over so-called auction-rate securities, which tumbled in value amid the credit crisis in February. The deal will help an estimated 40,000 individual investors and others whose holdings have declined by about $500 million.

Every year or so, investors are reminded of a basic truth: Not only do stock prices rise, but they also can plummet.The latest reminder came last Tuesday, the day after President Clinton announced plans for tax increases. Blue-chip stocks lost 2.4 percent of their value, as measured by the Dow Jones industrial average. Small-company stocks fared even worse, down 3.6 percent.Despite an occasional bump in the road, investors should avoid the temptation to panic. Investment decisions should be based on long-term financial goals, not short-term emotions.

WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Securities Dealers moved yesterday toward extending Nasdaq stock market trading into the night, to meet competition from electronic networks and enable individual investors to trade securities after work.The NASD board approved a proposal calling on its staff to proceed with preparations to open trading from 5: 30 p.m. to 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. New York time for stocks in the Nasdaq 100 index -- which includes the biggest Nasdaq stocks. The Nasdaq market now is open for regular trading from 9: 30 a.m. to 4 p.m.The NASD didn't set a timetable for when it would move to extend trading hours, saying "a full, responsible and coordinated effort will take some time."

Rockville-based EntreMed Inc., which in April canceled plans to sell 2 million additional shares after investors fled biotechnology stocks, announced plans yesterday to complete a more modest, 1-million-share offering that would net the company about $20.6 million. EntreMed said the proceeds - enough to help carry it "well beyond" a year - would be used to test its experimental protein drugs designed to block the growth of tumor-feeding blood vessels as well as for day-to-day expenses and general corporate purposes.

SHAREHOLDER ACTIVISTS are celebrating this year's annual meeting season. A bandwagon of post-Enron reform proposals is rolling over corporate management and boards of directors. The question for individual investors is this: Do you want to climb on for the ride? The momentum from this year's victories, including the 45 percent no-confidence vote by shareholders against Walt Disney chief executive Michael D. Eisner, has sparked plans for next year. It's personal: CEO pay and alleged misfeasance by directors will remain big issues.

RTC unveils plan for investorsFederal thrift regulators unveiled a program yesterday to give small investors a better crack at buying properties and other assets seized from bankrupt savings and loans.The Resolution Trust Corp. said the plan will minimize the taxpayer cost of the S&L cleanup by attracting more competitive bidding for $100 billion in real estate, loans, securities and other assets being sold by the agency.Under the plan, individual investors will be able to buy a foreclosed residential property from a government-seized thrift, rather than the thrift's entire portfolio of assets.

Citigroup Inc. agreed yesterday to pay a $100 million fine and buy back more than $7 billion in troubled fixed-income securities from individuals who have been stranded in the investments for most of this year. The settlement, with New York state Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo and other regulators, figures to put pressure on other banks to cut similar deals over so-called auction-rate securities, which tumbled in value amid the credit crisis in February. The deal will help an estimated 40,000 individual investors and others whose holdings have declined by about $500 million.

The financial adviser was on the air and on a roll, telling anyone listening why he likes actively managed mutual funds and dislikes index funds. Out came the statistics about how, since the stock market peaked, a large percentage of active funds have beaten their indexed peers. And in listing a few of his favorite funds - including a couple with alarmingly high expense ratios - he brought out the big guns. "Yes," he said as his voice rose to a crescendo, "index funds are much cheaper, but it's the same thing in mutual funds as it is with everything else in life, and I learned from my father 30 years ago that `You get what you pay for.'" Actually, in mutual funds, about the one thing of which you can be certain is that you get what you don't pay for, since the money you don't pay in higher costs stays in your account.

Spiders and vipers and qubes - oh my. It's a jungle out there in the world of exchange-traded funds, and it's about to get more crowded. The first ETF roared onto the market in 1993 when the American Stock Exchange created the Standard & Poor's Depository Receipts trust, or SPDR, to mirror the S&P 500. Since then, more than 150 ETFs have been created, with about $211 billion in invested assets, according to the Investment Company Institute, an association of...

SHAREHOLDER ACTIVISTS are celebrating this year's annual meeting season. A bandwagon of post-Enron reform proposals is rolling over corporate management and boards of directors. The question for individual investors is this: Do you want to climb on for the ride? The momentum from this year's victories, including the 45 percent no-confidence vote by shareholders against Walt Disney chief executive Michael D. Eisner, has sparked plans for next year. It's personal: CEO pay and alleged misfeasance by directors will remain big issues.

ARE YOU looking for solid investments? Money magazine, November, lists these "Ten Stocks for a Dangerous World," explaining, "No investment is risk-free, but these companies have steady earnings and strong balance sheets - and are reasonably priced: "British American Tobacco PLC ADRs, Citigroup Inc., Dow Chemical Co., Equity Residential Properties Trust Inc., General Electric Co., Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clark Corp., Kroger Co., Pfizer Inc. and Radiant Energy Inc." GOOD ADVICE: "The bear market emphasizes this fundamental: Only long-term money should be in the market.

AS THE STOCK market continues its wild fluctuations, there is no scarcity of advice. But there is no consensus. Some samples: "Those who are scared by this stock market turmoil don't have the right outlook. This may be the best time ever for bargain stock shopping." (Better Investing) "Markets will continue to drop, rally, and drop ... as corporations report lower profits and investors ponder increasing P/E ratios and decide their stocks aren't worth keeping." (Stockscom Report) "I don't think of myself as a stockholder, but an owner of a business.

A brief item in the Business section yesterday incorrectly described an acquisition agreement reached by Griffith Consumers Co. Griffith has agreed to buy only the retail and commercial heating oil business of Steuart Petroleum Co.The Sun regrets the error.Griffith to buy Steuart PetroleumGriffith Consumers Co., a Cheverly-based distributor and retailer of heating oil and gasoline, has agreed to buy Steuart Petroleum Co., which sells heating oil in Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

WHEN YOU GET a raise or bonus, do you worry about paying taxes on the new money? Financial consultant David Landay says you can take that money tax-free by contributing the funds to your company's 401(k) or other retirement plan."The money becomes a pretax retirement contribution, escaping income tax -- and it grows tax-free until you retire," he says.The most popular stocks among newsletters followed by Hulbert Financial Digest (with number recommending in parentheses) include: Cisco Systems Inc. (16)

In seven days, investor Richard L. Berman of Rockville will get his wish. So will Mario Barac of Columbia and Stuart Venzke of Greenbelt. That's when a new Securities and Exchange Commission rule kicks in, which is designed to level the playing field between big and small investors. Small investors have long complained that they have been iced-out of the information loop by publicly traded companies. The juiciest tidbits of information, they argue, are often spoon-fed to influential securities analysts, who pass it on to a select group of people - their clients.

What I haven't seen is a book that addresses what to do when you have done all the basics and want to analyze and buy stocks. Specifically, I am looking for how to sit down with an annual report for a stock ... and, in one to two hours, analyze it. Start with "Barron's Finance & Investment Handbook" (Barron's Educational Series; 1396 pages; $35; 800-606-0347). It's written by Jordan E. Goodman, the financial analyst and commentator who formerly served as the Wall Street correspondent for Money magazine, and John Downes, former editor of the Beating the Dow newsletter.