Morningstar

Liquid Alternatives: Bobby Blue, Senior Manager Research Analyst, Morningstar, On The Rising Inflows Into Liquid Alts

Liquid Alternatives, News / By

As equities and bonds suffer in a challenging macroeconomic environment, liquid alternatives have made a comeback. Investors are plowing money into strategies such as managed futures, volatility, long-short equity, and more. Since last year, as bonds and stocks stumbled, inflows have surged into liquid alternatives. Liquid alts are mutual funds, closed-end funds, and ETFs that invest in alternative investment strategies offering downside protection and diversification opportunities while providing daily liquidity which makes them accessible to all investors.

Liquid Alternatives: Three Reasons

Liquid Alternatives, News / By

Spawned after the 2008 financial crisis, liquid alternatives have disappointed investors. During the 2010s, these instruments averaged an annualized gain of 1.66%. Writing in Morningstar, columnist John Rekenthaler makes a telling comment in his article Liquid Alternatives Funds: Is There Any Hope?: “The concern lies when the hedged investment trails high-quality bonds, as has been the case with liquid alternatives funds. In that case, why bother with trickery? You could just hold Treasuries instead.”