The fund opens with $8 million in assets, with some 250 shareholders, some investing as little as $500.

Butterfield Asset Management director, Mr. Preston Hutchings, declared at the close of the fund's launch on Thursday afternoon: "We are very, very pleased with what has transpired during the launch period. We were crossing shares on the exchange.'' Even on Thursday, would-be shareholders in the Buttress Bermuda Fund were exchanging shareholdings in the stock market for shares in Buttress.

The exchange dipped lower after a trading volume of 261,675, as more than $5.3 million in shares changed hands. Many went directly to Buttress Bermuda.

There was a further half a million dollars worth of bonds that moved as well.

The fund is already a shareholder in the two largest banks, insurance companies, the Bermuda Electric Light Company and the Bermuda Telephone Company Ltd.

Mr. Hutchings said: "We will have good positions in those companies. It is a sign that we are really onto something here.

"The fund was meant for a number of types of investors, aimed at providing a vehicle by which the average Bermudian could participate.

"In that we believe we have succeeded. We have a lot of small investors.

"We expect to be a very successful fund in terms of assets under management very rapidly.'' The fund will have its shares traded on the dealing day, every Wednesday.