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March 7, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EST
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By Robert Powell, MarketWatch Continued from page 1 Page 1 Page 2
And that's the idea behind adding alternatives. "There are several asset classes that have stock-like and bond-like qualities and/or they have a way to mitigate some risk of equity market," Isbitts said in an interview.
So, given that this notion of investing in alternatives is, at least for some, a good idea for non-accredited investors, then these questions must be answered: Which alternatives? How much might one allocate toward these investments, 5%, 10%, or more? And can you really do this on your own, or do you really need the help of a qualified financial adviser?
According to Isbitts' book on the subject, the universe of alternative investments appropriate for average investors includes long-short, a strategy involves going long and short, with some but not a lot of leverage; market-neutral, a long-short strategy with an emphasis on keeping the longs and shorts close to even; merger-arbitrage, a strategy that provides an opportunity for consistent upside with built-in protection; convertible securities, which offer the upside potential of the underlying stock, but with the safety net of a bond; high-yield bonds; dedicated short equity or bear funds, which largely move in the opposite direction of the market; inverse bond, which move inversely to the direction of bond market; global macro, which look like flexible hedge funds in a mutual fund package; currency funds, and real-estate investment trusts. (Read Isbitts' commentary about alternatives at this website.)
As for how much to invest in alternatives, Isbitts is more in the all-in camp than the toe-dipping camp. In fact, given his prediction that interest rates are more likely to rise than fall over the next few years, he recommends replacing the bond portion of your portfolio with a mix of alternative investments. "Instead of stock-and-bond portfolio you'd have a stock-and-hedge portfolio," Isbitts said.
According to Isbitts, alternatives investments represent a suitable alternative to bond funds and bond-managed accounts, target-date funds, balanced portfolios, and conservative hedge funds and hedge-funds-of-funds.
"A central tenet to hybrid investing is that the combination of funds owned will have several natural offsets to each other," Isbitts wrote in his book. For instance, owning a dedicated short equity or bear fund neutralizes the risk of an all-stock portfolio. Using arbitrage and market-neutral funds reduce the impact of stock market movements. And having currency and inverse bond funds offset the exposure to interest-rate-sensitive investments in the portfolio.
For those who might want a more conservative portfolio with alternatives, Isbitts suggested using merger-arbitrate, currency, market-neutral and dedicated short equity funds. And for those who want a more aggressive portfolio, Isbitts suggested using global macro, high yields, convertibles, and long-short funds.
Botein said investing in alternatives requires the help of a financial adviser, and thinking about such investments as part of the whole. "You can't think of alternative investments as homogenous, under the same umbrella," Botein said. "They don't all behave the same; some in isolation are risky, but taken together they improve risk return."
Isbitts also warned against not having a sound strategy before investing in alternatives. "Everybody wants to be a full alternative investor but what they do is they end up buying products that are sold to them," said Isbitts, who noted that financial services firms are fond of promoting a full suite of alternative products these days. "Alternative to what?" he asked. "It's not an alternative if you are exchanging mediocrity for mediocrity."
Robert Powell is editor of Retirement Weekly, published by MarketWatch. Learn more about Retirement Weekly here. Follow his tweets here.
Robert Powell has been a journalist covering personal finance issues for more than 20 years, writing and editing for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and Mutual Fund Market News.
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