MorningStar – After lackluster equity returns in the past 10 years, many investors are increasing their allocations to alternative investments. The world of alternative investment strategies is quite broad, but it generally means an investment that offers diversification benefits to a traditional stock and bond portfolio.
The alternative category has been steadily growing in popularity for the past decade, and demand has increased dramatically since the 2008 financial crisis. The alternatives mutual fund category has doubled in size since 2007 and today totals more than $98 billion. In the ETF space, real estate and commodities funds have been the primary alternative investments available, but in the past year new types of ETFs have launched that emulate strategies typically found in expensive hedge funds for wealthy investors.
