Three parameters distinguish “exotic investments”: An investor needs to be able to readily trade the asset; there needs to be a publicly available index to compare its value to similar assets; and there needs to be an instrument that allows them to purchase a share. Beanie Babies don’t make the cut, but art, baseball cards, life insurance, tax liens, e-sports teams, cannabis farms, Bitcoin, and shipping containers do.
Clinical Associate Professor Kevin Mirabile, DPS, head of the Gabelli School’s alternative investment concentration, examines such quirky, offbeat investment opportunities in Exotic Alternative Investments: Standalone Characteristics, Unique Risks and Portfolio Effects (Anthem Press, 2021). The book delves into asset classes like life insurance settlements, litigation funding, farmlands, royalties, weather derivatives, and collectibles.
Three parameters distinguish “exotic investments”: An investor needs to be able to readily trade the asset; there needs to be a publicly available index to compare its value to similar assets; and there needs to be an instrument that allows them to purchase a share. Beanie Babies don’t make the cut, but art, baseball cards, life insurance, tax liens, e-sports teams, cannabis farms, Bitcoin, and shipping containers do.