Those watching the exchange-traded fund side of the Forty Act business may be thinking that they are seeing "Bubble 2.0". While the fund industry as a hole is back to business as usual after healing wounds inflicted by the 2002-03 bear market, the ETF sector is, as they say, hot hot hot. Case in point: startup WisdomTree Investments appears to be taking a page out of the late 1990s playbook and hiring the highest profile executives that it can. Its latest move came to light Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal reports that no less a heavyweight than former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt has signed onto the firm as a senior advisor. While Levitt has no direct experience in the ETF industry, he will certainly be able to open doors for the firm -- though the MutualFundWire is not sure which doors hedge fund legend Michael Steinhardt, or "Stocks for the Long Run" Jeremy Siegel or "Mr. Money Honey" Jonathon Steinberg could not already open (and to be fair to Steinberg, he was also the chief of Individual Investor's efforts).

According to the paper, Levitt's role is yet to be defined, but rest assured that he will have an equity stake in the business.

Though it has only been around since June, the firm already has launched 20 ETFs and claims some $400 million under management. It also has registered another 10 ETFs with the SEC.

Levitt told the paper that he speaks to large groups of institutional investors, and that he is prepared to plug the firm. "... when asked about ETFs -- as I have been before -- I would be prepared to define what makes WisdomTree an attractive alternative," said Levitt. "I'm not going to argue that WisdomTree is the only one; there are lots of players in their field; and some will do better than others."  

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