MetaMarkets.com Readies Internet Index Fund

The folks who brought you the (OPENX Quote - Cramer on OPENX - Stock Picks)OpenFund and the IPO & New Era fund are preparing to roll out an index Net fund around the end of the year.

On Friday, MetaMarkets.com, a South San Francisco-based online fund shop, filed preliminary paperwork for the no-load MetaMarkets Index fund with regulators. The filing doesn't name the index the new fund will track, but does say it will reflect the "Internet Economy" by investing in sectors like online retail, business-to-business commerce, networking equipment, wireless communications, software, hardware and online entertainment among others. The filing says the fund's index will not be strictly comprised of dot-coms, implying that the fund will hold plenty of "clicks-and-mortar" companies -- perhaps companies such as online broker Charles Schwab (SCH Quote - Cramer on SCH - Stock Picks) that have extensive online and traditional business operations.

Like MetaMarkets.com's other funds, the Index fund will post its portfolio and activity in real time on the firm's Web site, and will be run by a team of managers led by Don Luskin, the firm's chief executive.

The fund won't levy a load or sales charge and its annual expense ratio is anticipated to be 1%, according to the filing. That's much lower than the average tech fund's expense ratio, 1.75%. There isn't an index of tech funds that track indices, but the fund's expense ratio is in line with others: (ETTIX Quote - Cramer on ETTIX - Stock Picks)E*Trade Technology Index has an expense ratio of 0.85%; (ETECX Quote - Cramer on ETECX - Stock Picks)E*Trade e-Commerce Index, 0.95%; and (GFINX Quote - Cramer on GFINX - Stock Picks)Guinness Flight Internet.com Index, 1.39%.