The Only Guide to Alternative Investments You'll Ever Need: The Good, the Flawed, the Bad, and the Ugly »

Larry E. Swedroe is a principal and the director of research for Buckingham Asset Management, LLC (www.bamservices.com). He is the author of Wise Investing Made Simple, The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need, What Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know, Rational Investing in Irrational Times, and The Successful Investor Today. He also coauthored The Only Guide to a Winning Bond Strategy You’ll Ever Need. Swedroe has an MBA in finance from New York University.

Jared Kizer, CFA, previously worked as an investment adviser for Buckingham Asset Management, LLC, and authored this book with Larry while he worked there. He has published articles on investing in the Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of Indexes, and for indexuniverse.com. Kizer has a master’s degree in finance from Washington University in St. Louis.

In the third book in the popular The Only Guide You'll Ever Need series, the authors detail 20 alternative investments, explaining which to consider seriously during times of uncertainty—and which to avoid entirely.

List of Tables

Pt. 1 The Good

1 Real Estate 3

2 Inflation-Protected Securities 23

3 Commodities 41

4 International Equities 63

5 Fixed Annuities 79

6 Stable-Value Funds 91

Pt. 2 The Flawed

7 High-Yield (Junk) Bonds 101

8 Private Equity (Venture Capital) 123

9 Covered Calls 135

10 Socially Responsible Mutual Funds 141

11 Precious Metals Equities 147

12 Preferred Stocks 155

13 Convertible Bonds 163

14 Emerging Market Bonds 169

Pt. 3 The Bad

15 Hedge Funds 181

16 Leveraged Buyouts 213

17 Variable Annuities 215

Pt. 4 The Ugly

18 Equity-Indexed Annuities 229

19 Structured Investment Products 235

20 Leveraged Funds 247

Final Thoughts 251

Notes 253

Glossary 263

Recommended Reading 275

Sources of Data 277

Index 279