Alternate Assets

We all have at some point of time in our investing life invested in one or more than one of the following products:

All investments can actually be categorized to their simplest form in the following:

1. Equity ( Shares)
2. Debt ( Bonds, FD, NSC, PPF etc)
3. Precious Metals ( Jewelry, Gold coins and bars, Gold ETFs)
4. Real Estate ( Land, Flats )

But few of us have dabbled in

5. Commodities ( Tin, Soya bean, wheat, coal, copper….and every thing else under the sun created by god)
6. Currency markets ( $, yen, pounds, Euros, INR)
7. Alternate assets.

Let us talk a little bit about what I am calling here Alternate assets:

Typically alternate assets is anything that can not be classified as one of the first 6 things on the list.

Some common examples will be:

1. Antique coins and other antique objects
2. Art
3. Postage stamps
4. Wine bottles
5. Old posters, cards memorabilia etc, typically related to a theme e.g. movies, sports etc.

A lot of people have started dabbling in these assets, the logic one gets to hear is that these assets have a negative correlation with Equity and other markets so they provide a good hedge in volatile markets.

So should we go ahead and invest in one or more of these assets?

I am not sure. But given a choice I would like to stay away from most of the alternate assets.

If you are wondering why I can give many reasons and I plan to write about the same in the next blog I plan to write.

Thanks for reading keep watching this space.