JANE BRYANT QUINN
The ETF industry has the enemy in its sights: It’s the active manager who runs a traditional equity mutual fund. When they first appeared in the marketplace, ETFs -- exchange-traded funds -- talked up such virtues as their lower costs, tax advantages and how easy they were to trade. Now, after the worst year for the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1931, they’re going in for the kill.

When you invest in a fund of hedge funds, or a partnership that promises to find top managers for your money, you get an annual Independent Auditor’s Report. But what does that report actually show? Not much, as investors in Ascot Partners, Gabriel Capital, Fairfield Sentry, Tremont Group Holdings and other Madoff feeder funds learned to their loss.