The Allocator's Edge: A modern guide to alternative investments and the future of diversification

Apparently this is Mr. Huber's first book but it reads as though he has been writing for years. A truly thoughtful book with tons of applicable strategy. Can't wait for his next book!

I was amazed at how many alternatives are there outside of the traditional equity and bonds markets. The fact that there is such a spectrum of alternatives with comparable returns and lower correlation to the equity market is something that is required in today’s dilemma where correlation between asset classes only goes up. Lots of options for a accredited investor but close enough for the rest with the democratization through technology.The book doesn’t tell you what to choose but it opens the door for you to make your own research knowing what options are available. If you want to widen your investment options, this book is for you.

Phil does an excellent job setting a backdrop of today's challenged environment for equity and fixed income investors (high valuations, low rates); setting the table for an in depth analysis of alternative investments. The book covers alternatives from multiple angles, discussing how the alternative investment landscape has changed overtime, shedding light on different fund structures, as well as taking a deep dive into a number of alternative asset classes that could serve as compliments to a traditional 60/40 portfolio. This book serves as a useful guide to financial advisors and investors looking to build their knowledge of alternative investments and their role in a portfolio.

I can't argue with the premise (the bull market in bonds is over, stocks are over valued), but the execution is not for individual investors, unless they have many millions to establish an asset allocation of 80% traditional investments so they can devote 20% to alternatives. The title should really reflect that. The application of the different types of alternative investments is for money managers that can either get a pass on the high minimums or have clients that can drop a $500,000 to a million on an alternative investments.That being said, this is an eye opener - the field of alternatives has expanded quite a bit; however, the returns remain to be seen (since they have really not been there in the past, per Morningstar). This is not an easy subject to read about but Huber does his best to make it digestible. I appreciated the format and the summaries at the end of the chapters. I'd recommend this for any CFP, CAIA, CFA or other types of money managers.For those that can't play at the no-limit table I found only 3 tickers that were relevant: PAVE, GLIFX, and GUNR. Just to save some of you the time. Now, as far as real estate, farmland and collectibles go you can research those via Google. Be prepared for high fees and illiquidity (which Huber clearly states at the onset, and he makes a good case for accepting that).

Whether you are an intrigued investor or a financial advisor new to the alternatives space, this is the book for you. Phil does a wonderful job breaking down the history of alternatives, giving brief explanations of the major players in the space and providing insight into how you can utilize alternative investments in your portfolio/practice. What are alternatives? Why utilize them? How should I implement alternatives in my portfolios? These are just a few of the many questions that Phil answers in his book in a very elegant way. I cannot say enough about this book, it was an amazing read!

Phil Huber is one of the most well versed professionals in the industry when it comes to alternative investments. The book covers a wide array of the options available under the alternatives umbrella and provides thoughtful insight on how to think about due diligence and implementation in the context of portfolio construction from an allocators perspective.

This book starts with a highlight of the potential problem of low expected returns in traditional stocks and bonds. From there, Phil does an excellent job distilling the complex universe of alternatives into easy-to-understand topics to illustrate how each might fit into the context of your portfolio. Truly a must read for advisors that want to continue being seen as experts by their clients and individuals looking to learn how to better diversify their own portfolio!

This book began with a rah-rah couple of chapters saying what everyone else is saying: the stocks are overvalued, bonds yield nothing and have rising interest rate risk. Following this section was a much more dry series of chapters serially going through alternative asset classes. Finally the book concludes with various ways that these assets could be incorporated into future portfolio construction,Some of my struggles with this book were the unreferenced or claims of superior performance for various alternative assets over unspecified time periods. The book was very light on references and specifics to back up claims, and left me wondering if he was cherry picking performances based on favorable intervals (almost universal among financial writers).I also was looking at this book from a self-managed individual investor viewpoint. The book seems to be principally aimed at money managers. When I researched many of the recommended funds for various alternative assets, most of them would only deal with registered investment advisors (RIAs) or institutions, often with minimums in the seven figure range. So the information might be useful for RIAs that can pool assets from a number of clients, but is unhelpful for individual self-managed investors with moderate assets.Overall, for the individual investor, this book was of modest value, and was insufficiently referenced for me to wholly trust the conclusions.

An excellent summary of the ‘alternatives’ asset class. I heard the author on the Meb Fabre podcast (which I also highly recommend). The only problem is that for a U.K. based investor it is difficult and in some cases simply not possible to invest in some of the strategies I.e. where can I find a cat bond fund in the U.K.? Most of the example funds are US based / only open to US investors but I agree with the premise of the book about the death of 60/40 due to the high valuation of the bond market, etc.

A colleague put me onto this book as a way to educate myself on Alts and varying strategies around them. Gave great insight and is delivered in a way even a novice can follow.

This book is a great illustration of the complexity of finding true alternative investment options. The book does say it's for professionals and he's right. This really only becomes relevant to those with deep pockets - £500k plus I would say how can truly take advantage of the value of this book. This is because the cost of investing with smaller capital would be too expensive. Good rrad but unlikely to be tootlsy relevant to nornal retail investors.