The bear market and investor redemptions are not putting the breaks on all new funds, nor has it stopped odd-ball ideas. The latest is a "socially-irresponsible" investing fund being offered by Mutuals.com.

The Dallas-based investment advisor and now fund sponsor opened the doors on the Vice Fund today. As the name implies, the fund uses a screen to invest in "vice stocks." Namely those in the alcohol, gambling, tobacco and defense industries.

Trying things that are a bit different is nothing different for the firm founded by Rick Sapio. Early on, Sapio modeled the firm after 800-flowers and purchased the 800-mutuals phone number.

When dotcom mania hit, Sapio adopted the idea for the Web. Visions of an initial public offering and great things led the firm to turn down offers for the phone number from both Charles Schwab and E*Trade, according to sources who spoke with Sapio. Needless to say, those checks may be looking bigger in hindsight.

More recently the firm dropped the "800" from its name and partnered with Harry Dent, a noted speaker and promulgator of the idea that stock prices are driven by demographics, to launch a family of funds based on his ideas. Those funds are primarily targeted to advisors.

Earlier this year the firm as purchased the MutualFunds.com domain name from the now defunct startup. MutualFunds.com had been carved started by executives from New England Funds (now Nvest) who had grand plans to exploit the name.

We assume the new owners also have high hopes for the domain name. We also expect that they have high hopes for the ViceFund. Give them credit; they know how to dig up a catchy name.  

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