Short Takes: E-Trade Is Launching Two Index Funds

adding to its mutual fund family.

E-Trade Asset Management Inc. said Monday that it had filed a registration statement for two index funds with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The E-Trade E-Commerce Index Fund is based on the Goldman Sachs e-commerce index, which represents a basket of Internet company stocks selected by Goldman, Sachs & Co.

The E-Trade International Index Fund will track the performance of the EAFE Free Index, which consists of about 1,100 securities listed on the stock exchanges of countries in Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Far East.

The index only includes securities available to U.S. investors.

The funds will be advised by E-Trade Asset Management and distributed exclusively by E-Trade Securities Inc.

Investors will have to establish an E-Trade account to purchase the funds.

E-Trade currently offers proprietary index funds tracking the Standard & Poor's 500 index, the Wilshire 4,500 index, and the Lehman Brothers government/corporate bond index.