2) Your long awaited opportunity to buy Napoleon’s penis is finally here. The relic was part of a massive collection of quirky and macabre historical items assembled by famed Columbia University urologist John Lattimer. It will be offered for sale along with Hermann Göring’s monogrammed boxer shorts, the shirt Abraham Lincoln wore when he was shot, and W.C. Field’s top hat.

By Murray Coleman

Despite ongoing political turmoil, the Japanese Nikkei average is rallying, surging nearly 20% since mid-March.

Fundamental indexers are about to get a lower-costing alternative. But it won't be in the form of exchange-traded funds [ETFs].

On Thursday, Charles Schwab & Co. (SCHW) plans to launch two new index mutual funds based on Rob Arnott's fundamental benchmarking system. Those will compete against ETFs offered by PowerShares and using the same indexes created by Arnott's Research Affiliates.

Exchange-traded fund investors now have more international small cap ETF options but all of them share one major drawback, an overemphasis on Japan and the UK. I would love to see a small cap oriented ETF that included emerging markets and challenged the indexes in a more dramatic way.

Tom Lydon of ETF Trends summarizes your small cap international ETF choices this way.

With last week's launch of an iShares MSCI EAFE Small Cap ETF (SCZ), investors now have five choices in this hot space. How do you figure out which one is the best?

I worry that most investors don’t even bother. They figure that one small-cap international ETF is as good as another, so they just pick one and go. But one thing I’ve learned from studying this space is that different ETFs within the same asset class can be very different, and it pays to look closely.

Five new international ETFs have hit the market. The new PowerShares FTSE RAFI ETFs began trading today on the Amex along with the international private equity ETF the firm filed for earlier this year.

Three of the funds based on RAFI indexes cover the small/midsize market segments of global regions. They include the PowerShares FTSE RAFI Asia-Pacific Ex-Japan Small-Mid Portfolio (PDQ), the PowerShares FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. Small-Mid Portfolio (PDN) and the PowerShares FTSE RAFI Europe Small-Mid Portfolio (PWD). The small and midsize segments of international markets are becoming popular areas of investment for purposes of international diversification now that international large-cap markets are correlating more closely with U.S. large-cap stocks. The three funds complement existing PowerShares ETFs covering the large-cap segments of those same three regional markets. PWD and PDN have expense ratios of 0.75%, while PDQ's is 0.80%. Options contracts will be available for all three funds.

PowerShares is adding to its lineup of international exchange-traded funds with five new offerings that it expects to launch on the American Stock Exchange [AMEX] on September 27.

Four of the five will track fundamentally weighted indexes developed jointly by FTSE and Research Affiliates. These FTSE RAFI indexes use four fundamental factors—book value, sales, cash flow and dividends—rather than market capitalization to weight the stocks in the index. The designers claim this strategy helps their indexes outperform over the long haul by avoiding market bubbles and not overweighting overvalued stocks.

All-World, and All-World Ex-US
iShares MSCI ACWI (All Country World Index) Index Fund ETF (ACWI)
SPDR MSCI ACWI ex-US ETF (CWI)
SPDR S&P International Small Cap ETF (GWX)
The SPDR S&P World ex-US ETF (GWL)
Vanguard All-World Ex-US ETF (VEU)
NETS FTSE CNBC Global 300 Index Fund (MYG)

Multi-Region Developed Market ETFs
BLDRS Developed Markets 100 ADR Index Fund (ADRD)
Claymore/Robeco Developed International Equity ETF (EEN)
Claymore/Robeco Developed World Equity ETF (EEW)
iShares S&P Global 100 Index Fund (IOO)
iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (EFA)
iShares FTSE Developed Small Cap ex-North America Index Fund (IFSM)
PowerShares FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. Portfolio (PXF)
PowerShares FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. Small-Mid Portfolio (PDN)
RevenueShares ADR Fund ETF (RTR)
Vanguard Europe Pacific ETF (VEA)