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Goldman Sachs just admitted they put Russia at the bottom of investment attractiveness within "Big 8" country group, at least within the private equity space. Why am I not surprised?

Are you a dog person or a cat person? Well, I don't know about the dogs, but the "cats" have been gaining popularity with investors for some time now. Not that purring furry things, of course, but the Cat Bonds.

One of the great things about working in third-party marketing is that you get to meet all kind of investment managers from around the world. Over the past few months I have participated in the research effort on a very exotic asset class: life settlements. We met with a number of leading managers in the space, and had some very interesting discussions. Now I am clearly not an expert on the subject, but I believe some facts and thoughts below will still be interesting to share.

I have applied to the CFA Level 2 exam, and I am now also considering applying to the CAIA program. Below are some pros and cons and interesting facts that I discovered doing my little research on the subject: FACTS (1) Number of chartholders: Charted Financial Analyst (CFA): approximately 78,000 Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA): over 3,000  ( Source: Wikipedia) (2) Preparation required   CFA Minimum 250 hours per level   Total: 750+ hours CAIA Level 1: 150-200 hours Level 2: 200 or more hours Total: 350-400+ hours (Source: schweser.com)   (3) Membership Annual Dues CFA US$225. In Japan, there are reportedly additional fees for the CFA Society of Japan membership, which bring the total amount to approximately $400. CAIA US$250. (Sources: CFA website , CAIA website ) (4) Exam and Enrollment Fees CFA Program Enrollment: US$400* Level 1 Exam Registration: $690* Level 2 & 3 Exam Registration: $710* * Fees vary depending on the date...

Forget about sophisticated financial products. Forget about CDOs, especially if they include (God forbid!) MBS. Investors are going back to basics. In the time when the allegedly absolute-returns Hedge Funds are making headlines with big drawdowns, and the Private Equity firms cannot figure out how to make a buyout with no credit lines available in the banks they had been dealing with for decades, what does it leave a sophisticated investor with to invest into? It comes down to the Real Assets. One of the most popular (at least as a topic of conversation) investments of this sort is Timberland Investment. The beauty of it is that once the tree is planted, it grows without any other cash expenses. All that investor has to do is to make a decision on when and how much of the forest should be cut to sell the timberland and get returns. Timberland investments a long-term, typically over 10 years, and thus fairly illiquid, and compared to Private Equity, for instance, they generate lower re...

I am now reading The Handbook of Alternative Assets by Mark Anson. It provides a very good step-by-step explanation of rather complex universe of Alternative Assets. However, I would still prefer to see Real Estate included, even though I understand the author's reasoning for not doing so. Plus, more details on the funds legal structure would also be useful.