MetaMarkets.com

When MetaMarkets.com founders Don Luskin and Dave Nadig were money managers at Barclays Global Investors, they had a close relationship with their customers. "When an institutional investor called us up and asked what we were doing with their $10 million account, we would tell them," says Nadig. When the two decided to start their own fund company, they were both of the strong opinion that individual investors should have the same access institutional investors have. "It would be impossible for us to talk to all our customers on the phone, but the technological advances, especially the Internet, made it possible for us to do this," explains Nadig. With open information as primary goal, Nadig and Luskin launched MetaMarkets.com, a website in which they opened their funds' activities to the public eye. Access is not limited to shareholders. It's a large community that anybody can access.

MetaMarkets.com launched the first open disclosure fund, OpenFund (OPENX), in August 1999. Nadig comments: "We couldn't have picked a worse time to start a fund, but the advantage was that we could see how the investor behaves during a downturn. Investors could see exactly what we were doing. If they didn't agree with us, they'd sell out. But there were investors who recognized the merits of our work, and they stuck with us." It is this type of investor who has made MetaMarkets.com the strong community that it has become.

MetaMarkets.com has since launched another fund, the IPO and New Era Fund (IPONX). Both funds invest primarily in new-economy companies, or companies that focus on new technologies or business techniques that help pave the way for future economic growth and innovation. The funds buy stocks and options, and will take short positions in companies whose stock prices they expect to decline. Visitors to the site can view all trades that take place within the two funds. Not only that, but you can view the portfolios in real time. How many mutual fund companies do something like this?

But the site goes beyond merely keeping track of two funds. MetaMarkets.com gives you the opportunity to chat with industry experts, view trades as they are made by the fund managers, understand the reasoning behind each trade, track a mutual fund portfolio in real time, make objective investment suggestions, and participate in other discussion forums. A glance at the home page gives you an idea of the content depth. It includes a great collection of articles, which mostly focus on the current state of the market. The top gainers, losers, and biggest position of each fund are listed. Right below that are trading desk notes to keep you updated on all the buying and selling activity.

For those who want to exercise their intellectual bent, I highly recommend visiting the Intellectual Ammo section, where you can read about economics, politics, the Internet, investing, and company management.

IT'S ALL ABOUT COMMUNITY

The real power of MetaMarkets.com lies in the strength of its community. All members of the community can communicate with not only other members, but also with the fund managers and other individuals on the MetaMarkets.com team. Communication takes place via discussion boards and chatrooms. All messages and discussions can be viewed free of charge, although if you want to post a message or participate in the live chat, you must register. Registration is a painless process involving the submission of your name and e-mail address. (If you choose to do so, you can provide additional information such as address and phone number.)

Discussion boards and the live chat cover a variety of topics ranging from interest rate movements to specific stocks. Discussion boards and chatrooms do take some getting used to, but once you acclimate yourself to the setup, you'll have access to a slew of information. You can search discussions by board, author, subject, and content.

A visit to MetaMarkets.com is not complete without visiting the trading desk. There, you can see all the trades of the day, archives of trades, and last but by no means least, the two MetaCams. These provide real-time camera shots of the trading rooms 24/7 - an interesting add-on that contributes to the "openness" theme.

A UNIQUE OPEN COMMUNITY

With their heavy weighting in technology, MetaMarkets' funds haven't performed well of late; both funds suffered badly in the first quarter of this year. But it's the unique open community that has attracted investors to this site. When it comes to your money, there's a certain comfort in knowing what the fund managers are doing with it and having some say in where it goes. You won't find this in a traditional mutual fund. By breaking with tradition, MetaMarkets.com has achieved what they set out to do - show investors what's going on with their money.

Sean Moore can be reached at SMoore@Traders.com.

Copyright © 2001 Technical Analysis, Inc. All rights reserved.