Alternatives Popular Because Investors Want Diversification, Not Alpha

While the stock market soared and investors returned to US equities, 2013 was also a banner year for alternatives (private equity, hedge funds, real estate, and others) as both institutional investors and retail investors became more eager to take advantage of what had been niche strategies in the recent past.

But part of the reason alternatives have a much broader appeal is because the driving force behind investors allocating assets to them has also changed.

“The ‘wow moment’ in our paper for 2013 was the rationale for investing in those types of asset structures...