Alternative Assets: Investments for a Post-Crisis World

Guy Fraser-Sampson

Dec 2011 · Sold by John Wiley & Sons

About this ebook

The investment landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years, destroying many of the old certainties by which investors lived their lives. In particular, it has shaken belief in the ability of traditional asset types such as bonds and equities to protect them from abnormal market conditions, and it has brought home how closely correlation between different markets can be squeezed together by extreme pressure.

Future investors will have to regard so-called "alternative" assets as essential elements within their portfolios, and be prepared to deal with the complexities that this will entail. This will in turn force a re-appraisal of core concepts such as "risk" and "return", not least because some alternative asset classes do not lend themselves well to traditional return measures. Exciting times lie ahead, but a thorough working knowledge of the various alternative asset classes will be an essential pre-requisite to success, and perhaps even to survival.

Alternative Assets meets investor's need for a guide on where to allocate in this new climate. It provides investors with a primer on each alternative asset class, as well as practical tips on the pros and cons, implementation, returns analysis, fees and costs. It also offers introductory guidance on how to set investment targets, and how alternative assets can be accommodated within the allocation process. Each chapter gives useful background knowledge on a particular asset type, including a discussion of whether a satisfactory beta return level exists and, if so, the different ways in which it might be accessed.

Written by best-selling author Guy Fraser-Sampson, this book guides investors through the new look alternative investment arena, providing post-financial crisis perspective and investment advice on the alternatives landscape.

About the author

GUY FRASER-SAMPSON is one of the very few people in the world to have expertise right across the whole range of so-called "alternative" assets, including in particular issues of analysis, access and implementation. He has twenty-five years' practical experience of different aspects of the subject, including fund structuring, investment management and returns analysis. He is also unusual in that to his many years of practical experience have been added the last few years in an academic setting, enabling him to gain a whole new dimension on investment matters generally, not just through teaching and lecturing but also by supervising various research projects.

Guy's work experience has included a period as Investment Controller with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and setting up and running for several years the non-US activities of a leading fund of funds manager. In addition to his work with funds, he has also conducted direct, secondary and mezzanine transactions around the world. He is currently at the forefront of work on identifying sources of beta return across different asset types, and discussing methods of accessing these.

Guy teaches post-graduate modules on private equity and investment strategy at Cass Business School in the City of London, and is also recogniZed as an authority on all types of alternative assets. He performs consultancy and high level executive training assignments for clients around the world, and is also in demand as a provider of keynote addresses at investment conferences. In addition to various professional qualifications, he holds an LLB with honours from King's College London, and an MBA majoring in finance from Warwick Business School.

Guy writes for a number of finance and investment publications, including his influential monthly column in Real Deals. He is the author of Multi-Asset Class Investment Strategy, also published as part of the Wiley Finance series, which questions accepted views of risk and return, and sets out ways in which investors could and should incorporate a wide range of so-called alternative assets into their planned portfolios. He conducts regular investor workshops around the world based upon his books.

He has won praise for his no-nonsense writing style, which aims to de-mystify finance and make it accessible to the general reader by means of explaining the concepts which lie behind it, and the use of practical everyday examples.