Well, it was probably inevitable, given the explosive growth and alts and the fact that many people still aren’t very comfortable with them.

In a very interesting column titled Is your ‘alternative’ fund a ticking time bomb?, MarketWatch’s Chuck Jaffe delves into some of the prevailing worries the public has about alt investments.

We’ve all heard them before, but still it is good that they be restated to show that alt investments still have a way to go before investors are comfortable with them.

For example, most investor still don’t understand these investments enough to describe them simply, or accurately. Indeed, the category itself can mean a multitude of things to different people.

Jaffe notes the SEC sweeps on the products, which he writes are not so much geared at finding wrongdoing as simply to understand what these products are all about.

The columnist then cites experts like Jeff Sica, chief investment officer of Circle Squared Alternative Investments, who warns that some of the underlying investments for some alts products could prove less liquid than people expect, and that can be a problem.

To-be-sure, Jaffe isn’t the only journalist noting concern about the products. InvestmentNews recently noted warnings by Vanguard on the products.  

Edited by: Tommy Fernandez


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