Alternative Alternatives (PDF)

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, investors are searching
for new opportunities and products to safeguard their investments
for the future. Riding high on the wave of new financial
opportunities are Alternative Alternatives (AA). However, there is
a dearth of information on what Alternative Alternatives are, how
they work, and how they can be profited from.

The book defines what Alternative Alternatives are, based on
research and the following hypothesis: If the source (origin) of
the risk lies outside of the financial markets, then it should be
insulated from the vagaries of those markets. The book identifies
and examines such and other unique, idiosyncratic, and difficult to
replicate sources of risk - assets and strategies. The recent
credit and sovereign debt crisis have served to defend the
hypothesis and have upheld the conclusion that alternative
alternative assets and strategies offer a risk-return profile that
is distinct to those offered by traditional and main stream hedge
fund 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 and
behaviour finance.

This book will be a one stop resource to the new investment
class known globally as Alternative Alternatives (AA) and will
provide a comprehensive but accessible introduction to these
assets. It provides an in-depth analysis of the assets and
strategies which will leave investors with everything they need to
identify and allocate to the best AA for them. It reviews the asset
on a standalone basis, providing an explanation of the product, its
characteristics, a SWOT analysis, and details its risk/reward
drivers. The book also looks at how to integrate the asset within a
portfolio - its peculiarities, the challenges and the constraints
of each. Next, the book shows how Alternative Alternatives are used
in the real world, how they are implemented, and the results that
they have achieved. Finally, the book looks at the scope,
scalability and prospects for each asset in the future.