Tuesday 23 October 2012

The Growing Popularity of Alternative Investments


When investors think about making an investment, it is all about the numbers. Simply put, all most of them are concerned about are the profits generated on the principle. In order to be successful, financial firms and private investors study the market trends and speculate on the future, basing their opinion on a myriad of factors. Essentially, they study the past to try and predict the future. Unfortunate for traditional investments, past trends for stocks and bonds has brought dismal results overall, and analysts forecast that this trend is expected to continue.

However quite to the contrary, one positive trend that is currently emerging in the investment world, is the growing popularity of alternative investments and non-traditional investing options. Money managers all over the world are scurrying to get in on these new opportunities and the demand is expected to continue to rise, as traditional investing methods continue to fail. This is seen as a good thing, as it brings more competition into the global free-enterprise market, and creates more opportunity to generate new wealth; and diversify an investment portfolio. This approach ultimately leads to a wider foundation, on which to build long-term economic prosperity, throughout the world.

Results from a recent study by one of the world’s largest asset managers, indicated that close to 70% of individual investors are looking for new investment options, to replace the traditional approaches that have not been producing favorable results. The CEO of Natixis in the Americas and Asia, John Hailer, said that investors “would like to try new ways of investing, but they would also like to sleep at night.” The survey also revealed some other interesting numbers. It noted that a growing number of investors (almost 68%) prefer to invest in products and make investments that are easy to understand. Those numbers will certainly increase as the decade unfolds, as more investors become educated as to the benefits of alternative investments.

6 comments:

  1. The recent results reported in the study, show that a majority of investors are unhappy with their existing investment portfolio and traditional investing strategies. Thankfully, alternative investments are emerging in the market, to give discouraged investors an opportunity to make profitable investments, with investments that are easy to understand.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In a lot of investment cases many factors have to align just right in order for the returns to be positive in the future. The past few years has showed just what happens when they don’t, as in the case of the U.S. and western financial meltdown.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The current financial meltdown occurred as a result of greed and improper speculation of the markets, the housing markets in particular this time around. The same sort of thing happened in 1929 when the stock market crashed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It was only a matter of time before alternative investments made their mark in the financial world. Once seen as little more than filler for portfolios, they are now becoming the essential element of a smart investment strategy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It’s no wonder alternative investments are gaining popularity the last five years. Investors don’t trust the traditional strategies anymore. Who can blame them for looking elsewhere for opportunities to grow their money.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Alternative investments are becoming more mainstream around the world and they are proving themselves to be quite reliable when compared to traditional methods. It’s a good thing they are or the investment world would be in a far worse state than it presently is.

    ReplyDelete