Alternative investments consistently provide higher returns as well as Essay

Alternative investments consistently provide higher returns as well as diversification benefits to client portfolios Discuss this statement highlighting the most common types of alternative investments - Essay Example e negatively influenced – no matter even the limitation in these products’ performance is high or low; the examination of the investors’ preferences under normal market conditions has led to the assumption that alpha returns is likely to be preferred as an investment tool instead of beta return. The nature and the performance of this investment product can be used in order to explain the increased interest of investors on alpha returns. However, under the influence of the current financial crisis, the attractiveness of alternatives and structured products has been reduced showing the strong dependency of investment decisions on the market conditions. In order to understand the increase in clients’ preferences on alpha returns it would be necessary to refer primarily to the characteristics of the specific investment; in accordance with Dorsey (2007, p.5) ‘alpha often is a virtual catchall for the return generated by an alternative investment that is not considered to be related to equity beta’. The above type of alternative investment seems to be preferred by investors – instead for the beta return; this differentiation on the investors’ preferences can be explained by analyzing the characteristics of the specific two investment products. The term beta return reflects ‘beta is the amount of return for a security or fund that is explained by its benchmark or component benchmarks’ (Dorsey, 2007, p.6); in other words, the main difference between the alpha and the beta return is that the former focuses on the factors influencing the performance of a specific investment while the latter r efers to the market prices in general. In this context, the alpha return is likely to be preferred by investors as it offers a clearer view on the potential performance of a particular investment; the identification of the price of the market to which an investment is related is of secondary importance for the investors of the particular market. From another point

Struggle and Survival in Colonial America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Struggle and Survival in Colonial America - Essay Example The harsh natural environment in which the native American Indians had lived upon at that time required them to band together for their ultimate survival. This communal basis of society in the native Americans had remained, while the settlers disintegrated. Their concept of a community hinged on common ownership of their lands and common membership in the sacred natural order (Sweet & Nash 18). On the other hand, the European concepts of private property (or termed as a private enterprise) and the individual exploitation of nature for one's own profits, did not allow for the collective modes of behavior observed in native American Indians. The settlers forced the natives to adapt to this lifestyle and forgo community living. The arrival of the first white settlers at the tidewaters of Virginia had divided a tribe of Indians termed collectively as Powhatans. The tribe at Virginia at that time were known as the Algonquian Indians the most famous of which is Pocahontas who had been immortalized in history and literature. Her tribe welcomed the new arrivals, as exemplified by her father but this generosity ushered the decline of their tribe, eventually. It weakened the formerly strong and politically stable Indian settlements of the Powhatan tribes such that they were displaced and marginalized to the point of near extinction (Fausz 21). Some natives tried to resist the Europeans but were soon defeated by the superiority of the white settlers weaponry. The Algonquians were not unanimous in their acceptance into their midst the new settlers like what Opechancanough did.