October 24, 2007

FUND TRACK

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THE OLD COLLEGE TRY: "It's sort of like 'American Idol' for ETFs," says Andrew Corn, chief executive at Clear Indexes, referring to his firm's exchange-traded-fund contest and the music reality show that gives amateurs a shot at stardom.

Clear Indexes LLC, a subsidiary of Clear Asset Management, is sponsoring a contest seeking the most creative, original and marketable idea for an ETF from students at three East Coast colleges -- Columbia University, New York University and Lehigh University.

The competition's winner will receive a $4,000 prize and a paid internship for at least one semester at Clear Indexes, a New York firm that creates custom benchmarks. The winner will see the development of the ETF as an index and participate in a bell-ringing ceremony on the ETF's first trading day. ETFs are similar to mutual funds but are listed on exchanges and trade like stocks.

Entries can be submitted on the firm's Web site. Winners will be chosen by Clear Indexes and its advisory board and announced on Facebook.com, the social-networking site. The deadline is Nov. 26.

"We're looking for great new investment themes," Mr. Corn said. "Why limit ourselves to just our own ideas?"

Write to Kaja Whitehouse at kaja.whitehouse@dowjones.com1