Vanguard Group isn’t in immediate danger, but there’s something gaining on it,
and it’s called Charles Schwab & Co. Vanguard, of course, owns the biggest and
best-known S&P500 index fund, and overall holds assets of some $500 billion.

Two of the better known proprietors of socially responsible indexes are
considering licensing them to other fund managers.

Barclays Global Investors, widely considered the world’s largest manager of
indexed funds, is adding a few more index fund arrows to its quiver.

The author quantifies the widely observed convergence phenomenon among western European
countries and contrasts it with the performance of industry sectors in western Europe, using his
firm’s own sector-based indexes.

On October 11, Salomon Smith Barney (SSB) launched a complete series of
global equity style indexes.

On November 4, Integrity Global Asset Management, a Wakefield, RI-based
company, began operating its new Internet index fund. The Internet Index Fund
tracks the Dow Jones Internet Index.

Internet stocks with returns exceeding 1000% in less than two years are reported. Numerous
investment firms that chose not to invest in Internet stocks have badly trailed their peers in performance.

The American Stock Exchange has grown to become the king of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), thanks to its SPDRs and WEBS, which have virtually been its salvation