Alternative Alternatives: Risk, Returns and Investment Strategy

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, investors are searchingfor new opportunities and products to safeguard their investmentsfor the future. Riding high on the wave of new financialopportunities are Alternative Alternatives (AA). However, there isa dearth of information on what Alternative Alternatives are, howthey work, and how they can be profited from. The book defines what Alternative Alternatives are, based onresearch and the following hypothesis: If the source (origin) ofthe risk lies outside of the financial markets, then it should beinsulated from the vagaries of those markets. The book identifiesand examines such and other unique, idiosyncratic, and difficult toreplicate sources of risk - assets and strategies. The recentcredit and sovereign debt crisis have served to defend thehypothesis and have upheld the conclusion that alternativealternative assets and strategies offer a risk-return profile thatis distinct to those offered by traditional and main stream hedgefund strategies. These strategies include timberland investing,insurance risk transfer, asset/loan based lending (aviation,shipping, trade, entertainment, litigation financing etc),collectables and extraction strategies such as volatility andbehaviour finance. This book will be a one stop resource to the new investmentclass known globally as Alternative Alternatives (AA) and willprovide a comprehensive but accessible introduction to theseassets. It provides an in-depth analysis of the assets andstrategies which will leave investors with everything they need toidentify and allocate to the best AA for them. It reviews the asseton a standalone basis, providing an explanation of the product, itscharacteristics, a SWOT analysis, and details its risk/rewarddrivers. The book also looks at how to integrate the asset within aportfolio - its peculiarities, the challenges and the constraintsof each. Next, the book shows how Alternative Alternatives are usedin the real world, how they are implemented, and the results thatthey have achieved. Finally, the book looks at the scope,scalability and prospects for each asset in the future.