Changes in two funds' holdings caught the eye of The Wall Street Journal, which made room for the moves in its Thursday Fund Track column. The $5.4 billion Third Avenue Value Fund, the fourth biggest mutual-fund holder of Legg Mason until this summer, sold all of its 2.5 million shares of the Baltimore-based asset manager. The decision to sell the Legg shares and other stocks, according to portfolio manager Martin Whitman, was made to raise cash for redemptions.

Meanwhile, Pimco pared its holdings of short-dated TIPS over the past couple of weeks as it anticipates the decline in consumer prices will move at a faster clip in the next months. Portfolio manger Mihir Worah said the $12.3 billion Real Return Fund sold a "fair amount" of one-year to two-year TIPS.

The Fund Track column also covered the Wednesday's unanimous vote by the SEC to require fund firms to provide investors with summary prospectuses (see The MFWire, November 19, 2008) and the news coming out of the Reserve that ex-Merrill Lynch executive Joseph Monagle will dispense advice to the firm as it liquidates some of its portfolios (see The MFWire, November 19, 2008). 

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