Alternative funds are not foolproof - HFM Columbus

The recent share market slide coupled with the commodity boom has led to a plethora of new alternative launches, but HFM Columbus urges caution on today’s fashionable asset classes. “It now seems that everyone is launching alternative asset funds with a disturbing implication that they are absolute return," HFM investment director Rob Pemberton says. “But we need to remember that agricultural land, commodities, currency, water, wine, emerging market debt, asset backed lending et al have the propensity for losing as well as making people money.” In a study of the last 12-months in markets...