Five strategies to help spooked investors
For straightforward exposure to alternatives, the closest thing to a turnkey solution is a fund that seeks to offer a diversified portfolio of non-correlated investments. Core managers typically will blend a wide variety of underlying strategies, funds or subadvisers to create a non-correlated alternative-investment vehicle that can be used as part of a larger and more traditional portfolio.
The Aston/Lake Partners LASSO Alternatives Fund Ticker:(ALSOX) combines such strategies as hedged equity, long/short fixed income, arbitrage, futures and specialty hedges for a fund designed to fit into the alternatives slice of a portfolio. Another example is the Absolute Strategies Fund Ticker:(ASFIX). This fund allocates assets to 15 subadvisers, with each concentrating on investing in different alternatives strategies. There also is the Direxion/ Wilshire Dynamic Fund Ticker:(DXDWX).
The Direxion fund re-balances monthly across 17 asset classes, including stocks, bonds, cash, commodities and real estate, with a goal of adjusting the correlation to the market, depending on the outlook.
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