According to a story at Market Watch, Clear Indexes LLC is giving some college students a opportunity to design a new ETF. In addition to bragging rights and the euphoria of designing a successful product, the winner will receive $4,000.

On Thursday, PowerShares Capital Management announced that they have received regulatory relief from certain SEC limits for all of their exchange-traded funds (ETFs), specifically from Section 12d-1 of the Investment Company Act of 1940. As their press release explains:

I gotta admit, I'm a lover of exchange traded funds (ETFs). Ever since I bought shares in the PowerShares Water Resources (PHO) fund last year as part of a ShareBuilder promotion, I've been a convert. I've added to my position several times since my initial purchase, and I'm up 18% collectively since last September. (This is not a recommendation to buy PHO now, just a historical look at my own purchases and a testimony to my conversion.)