Online trading outfit E*Trade Group Inc has launched its Mutual Fund Center, allowing customers to access information on and invest in more than 3,000 mutual funds. The new service complements the company’s existing stock services and it says that some funds are available with no loads and no transaction fees. E*Trade will make mutual fund prospectuses and other research tools are available online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Fund information available to includes profiles, prices, historical charts and portfolio holdings. The company says its new service was designed with customer preferences in mind – good timing for such an announcement after thousands of disgruntled investors had trouble using the over-burdened service during last week’s record market activity on Wall Street. E*Trade had to limit access to its trading services during the period to prevent a massive overall slowdown. In the wake of the troubles, the company’s shares dropped nearly 19% last Wednesday, before recovering later in the week. They closed Monday at $32.8125, up $1.9375, and roughly where they were prior to the plunge.
