Investment Articles

What is Quantitative Trading?

Quantitative trading is a term which indicates removing all human emotions from the investing or trading process. Basically have a computer system make all the decisions for you; you just pull the trigger, so to speak.

Emotions are your enemy when it comes to trading or investing in the financial markets. Fear and Greed are the two arch enemies which fuel trading. For the most part anyway. So can we really trade without any emotional involvement? That’s the question we are going to try and answer below.

Analyze your trading time frame

Day Traders are usually stuck in front of your computer screen and watching each tick on the market as it ticks by. This can cause you some major headache and it will be almost impossible to contain fear or greed.
Swing Traders often times have a trading “system” which allows them to place trades and wait for the “prediction” to occur and then exit out of the position. Usually they have safeguards in place by placing a “Stop Loss” order together with the order.
Long Term Investors will be the ones that are involved the least on the day-to-day operations of the markets. However their emotions are not easily contained if the stock goes into a downward spiral due to some bad news effecting the company.

If you are a Day Trader, unless you have piles of cash which you don’t mind losing, then you are the least likely to benefit from Quantitative Trading or Investing. Not because you don’t want to, but because it will be harder to contain fear of losing more money, or being greedy and earning more money.

Swing trading strategy, in my opinion, is most likely to succeed in quantitative trading. Usually swing traders have a plan of when to enter a position, where to place the stop loss order and when to exit or place a trailing stop. If they just trust their system to do it’s thing, they should be OK.

Long term investors are the least likely to be able to take advantage of Quantitative Trading or Investing. Simply because they rely too much on the outside noises such as news releases, advice of their broker or the hot tip they got from someone who claims to know a lot about the markets. They react to every little thing.

In my opinion, only people who can trade or invest quantitatively are the ones who have a plan, stick to it and have enough cash to support their draw downs. It becomes harder and hard to make any money trading and keep your emotions out of your decisions if you have less and less money each day to trade or invest with. But if you have a system in place, and are able to sustain initial losses without bankrupting you, you will do fine. Otherwise, you just simple have to accept the fact that emotions are part of the game, for the majority of the game, and that you will be losing money, for the most time.

Mentor is the Founder and Publisher of http://RogueReason.com.

The demand for silver continues to rise as new uses for it has been found over the years. In 1997, silver had a value of not more than $5 and it has increased six times in the last 14 years. As traders and investors came to understand the price increase of the commodity, they went into efforts on developing good silver trading strategies to enhance success when dealing with this precious metal.

Sufficient knowledge and understanding on this type of trade can produce benefits, and before you start developing silver trading strategies you must first consider three important things.

The people who make silver trading work

Trading silver can be a solution against inflation. Several individuals who trade the commodity don’t care much about the physical delivery but more on the cash profits of the difference they receive. This precious metal can be traded on several commodity exchanges and some include the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and CME Globex.

Ways to trade silver

You can go into silver coin collection. Although this does not conventionally fit in an investment or trade category, your collection of silver coins can become extremely valuable if they are stored for years and sold later when their values are higher. Owners of rare coins can get a large amount of cash when placing their coins in auctions.

Countries, such as Liechtenstein and Switzerland, allow silver to be purchased and sold over the counter in banks. As an owner, you will receive a guarantee receipt that then enables you to lay a claim of silver ownership on the bank.

Silver certificates are similar to share certificates. They symbolize ownership of silver without you actually holding the physical commodity. You can use them to restore the commodity for sale when the cost of the commodity has gone up beyond the cost at which the holder purchased them.

Silver futures, spot and options trading are carried out as derivatives. It caters several exchanges all over the world and trading platforms in the internet.

Factors that influence the price of silver

There is a rough theory on the forecast of the price of silver being positively correlated with the price of gold. Another factor that is said to influence the price of silver is the currencies such as the Mexican Peso and its equivalent in silver. Mexico is known as the second biggest producer of silver and a large percentage of silver all over the world is traded in Mexican Peso.

There are authentic and reliable sources online that can further enhance your knowledge on this type of trade. Though silver trading can be very risky, learning effective silver trading strategies can help avoid risk and maximize profit.

Investor and trader, John Conejos specializes in data and risk management. He wants you to get a copy of Derivative Trading Systems’ FREE e-book and learn the “8 Winning Trading Strategies For Gold And Silver in 2012″ as well as the three highly essential technical analysis trading strategies that can enhance profit when trading gold and silver. Now you can manage the risks as well as get higher returns when dealing with gold and silver.

Opportunities come in many forms. Some say that opportunity knocks only once. Others say it just lingers. Whichever is true is not a big deal. It is how one gets the opportunity. Most people would agree that an income opportunity is the best opportunity they could have. This is the reason why everybody looks for it. Still, some could hardly find it. To really get the opportunity does not necessarily entail much energy. One good analogy is the lion. Lions get their prey after ten attempts. By the time they eat their victims, they will have used all their energy. So, their meal is just enough to replace their lost energy and that energy is also just enough for another day to get another prey. On the contrary, crocodiles just float on the water and wait for their prey and they never let it pass. After their meal, they will be full and won’t get hungry even for a long time without having to look for another immediate prey. The latter analogy is the best example of how we should get an opportunity. And in terms of income opportunity, this example is equivalent to a passive income opportunity.

Passive income opportunity can be recognized through careful analysis of the economic condition that affects the risk-reward ratio of a particular investment instrument. If you are investing in stock market, the right opportunity is when the value of a company that you are willing to buy is at the bottom. In this case, it is cheap and the potential for stock valuation is high. So, this is another passive income opportunity. In stock market, we earn from the dividends of a company and at the same time from its valuation. Taking advantage of the price fluctuation offers a lot of passive income opportunities. Ideally, we buy shares when they are cheap and we sell them when they are expensive. This is also true with almost all trading instruments. A passive income opportunity is evident when a clear and strong trend has been forming. To get the right entry, we must understand why such fluctuations occur so that we can follow where the market is heading. It is important to know the price action of a given instrument to measure the potential and the limit of a passive income opportunity and this is determined by the changing dynamics of the market driven by many different factors that we must also get into deeply.

Traders use two methods to analyze a passive income opportunity and these are called fundamental and technical analysis. Fundamental analysis is a method of studying the current economic factors that affect the behavior of the market. When the economic condition is good, it promises growth for a certain investment. Therefore, traders are willing to buy attractive instruments. And by doing so, they influence the rest of the market players to push the price up. But when the economic condition is worse, it drives fears and this is known as risk aversion. The former is known as risk appetite.

We can measure the strength and weakness of the economy using economic indicators released periodically. One of the most popular economic indicators is the GDP. When the GDP number is higher than the forecast, the economy is healthy and is suitable for investment. Another influential indicator is the unemployment rate. When the unemployment rate is higher, consumers are reluctant to spend. Businesses suffer. And so, it becomes a bad time for investment. This is just an example that each data is important for traders in order to make sound decision. Good economic indicators introduce a passive income opportunity for investors and traders as well.

Economic news of the sort can influence market sentiments. But sometimes, rumors make the traders react more than the news does. So, most traders buy on rumors and sell on news. This is also another area for a passive income opportunity. How does it work? If, for instance, a company was said to introduce a very competitive product, investors would buy that company much earlier. Consequently, the value of the company would also get higher. And if the news was not true, early buyers would sell and take their profit. Hence, information gives us a passive income opportunity.

Another method that traders use to identify a passive income opportunity is the use of technical analysis. Technical analysis provides traders with historical data expressed in chart. Chart can show identifying patterns that help traders follow the direction of the market. It also gives a signal if the price of a trading instrument has reached a certain level where a reversal occurs every time it is there. A passive income opportunity in technical analysis begins when the chart shows a clear trend right after a reversal. Experts in this field have numerous tools to reveal a passive income opportunity. Here, price moves within a trading range. But when the range is broken, it implies a much stronger trend. This is known as “break out”. A break out opportunity is a big passive income opportunity. Buying on break out has proven to be profitable.

Whatever method we use whether fundamental or technical, there is always a passive income opportunity.

There are still other ways to find a passive income opportunity such as the issues of new trading instruments. These include IPO, government bond selling and any fresh issue of investment instrument. The bottom line here is that since it is a fresh issue, the price is at its cheapest and there is no direction than to go up.

Initial public offering (IPO) is a fresh issue of shares for a company’s expansion. Companies do not have to borrow money from banks to expand their operation. Instead, they will look for investors to put up their funds in order to fund the expansion operation. This fresh issue has not yet been traded in the stock market. When a company conducts its IPO, the fresh issue of shares is bought by investment banks. Investment banks will pay the company afterward. Then, the fresh issue which the investment bank has bought will be sold in the trading floor of the stock exchange. This kind of sale in the trading floor is known as IPO. Why many traders desire to buy an IPO is because most companies that issue IPO are in expansion mode. Obviously, a company expands when it has been growing, and the potential growth in the near term is high. In addition, an IPO of a growing company is offered at the bottom price. Therefore, the price direction is set to a bullish trend. After the initial public offering, these shares will be traded. And when these shares are transferred from one trader to another, these shares will become secondary stocks. IPO is one good example of passive income opportunity. In the stock market, rumors about an IPO stimulate risk appetite. During economic slowdown, IPO is hardly heard unless the industry it belongs to is resilient. So, a passive income opportunity begins when the economy has continuously been growing especially if the main recipient is the company that issues the IPO.

Company mergers and acquisition also creates a passive income opportunity because it is always attractive to invest in the giant.

We have seen many options to find passive income opportunity. If you are still not decided to try one on your own, there is also a passive income opportunity from people who specialize in trading such instruments. You may seek the advice of fund managers. Some high-net-worth individuals invest in the proven talent of those traders. If you choose to do so, you may research some information about them the way they do about passive income opportunity. It is also wise to invest in people who are already taking advantage of a passive income opportunity.

Michael F. Anyayahan is a freelance forex trader and writer. To learn more, visit: http://www.forexuniverse.yolasite.com

According to the reports by the panel of expert analysts at the London Bullion Market Association, the prices on silver will not rise up to a remarkable extend as expected the same in April 2012. However, gold will display its flares in 2012 because of ongoing precious metals price prediction competition. As statistics from the competition on the prices, gold appears to touch elation unlike its counterpart the white metal.

From the analysts’ forecasts, it is clear that the average silver price in 2012 was US$33.98, but it shored up to a height of $44.49 that was a consecutive predication representing a substantial 39% increase. This is a blueprint of the current silver price, which is around $32. If you take both of the metals in combination, you will see that the gold: silver ratio may fall a little from the current 52 to around 46, which is rated above the low point achieved in 2011 as well above the so-called historic ratio of 16:1.

As six out of 25 participants in the competition assume that the prices on silver will exceed $ 48.70 at some stage in 2012 taking for grand 28th April last year’s silver price rise. Some analysts believe a maximum $50 increase for the white metal as the rounded off figure for silver at the current moment. With their last year prediction, they were unfortunately wrong with their $10 below guess. Hence, they feel that it is very difficult to predict fate of silver.

The survey participants’ doubts on silver’s performance occur as a result of agitation about the global economic recovery and the proportion of silver demand, which depends on industrial usage. Some bullish forecasters say that the increasing industrial demand in the mid of the year provide sufficient boost to silver prices. Hence, it offers an edge to its counterpart, gold as well a strong witness of silver’s performance where both metals move forward at the same time.

The white metal appears to be more volatile metal than its counterpart, gold whereas the variation is enormously notable because of high and low over the prices. According to the forecast of the analyst participants, the average silver price may fall down $20 whereas the average low price will stay at $24.06, which is huge difference representing a difference between high and low of around 85%. Because of volatile nature of silver, it is referred the Devil’s metal and a point to note down that it is hard to predict about its altering prices.

Kyles Humphrey is a veteran journalist in silver market, mining & stocks, who frequently writes articles related to silver prices, silver spot price including tips on investment in silver. Please visit silverprices.com for more details.

Should you hold Alternative Investments in your portfolio?

So you’ve decided to reduce your exposure to equities in order to avoid the price volatility that seems to be driven by the latest piece of political rhetoric about national debt or economic growth. You’re no longer seeing the value of your investments rise and fall by considerable margins on a daily basis, and you’re sitting on a nice pile of ’safe’ cash. But you probably also need to find a home for your capital where it will grow at least in line with inflation, hopefully generate some income, whilst sharing little correlation with the performance of equities, bonds and other traded financial instruments.

So now is the time you start to consider alternative investments. but where do you start? Do you buy fine wine, rare stamps, farmland, timber or any other of the plethora of emerging alternative investment asset classes currently being touted as the ‘perfect’ investment?

I suggest that the first place one should look should be to their requirements, really establish the end goals you wish to achieve, and the limits you have in terms of liquidity, asset allocation for your alternative investments (as a % your total portfolio) and risk. From there you can, with enough research, discover which asset class might be the right alternative investment for you.

Let’s look at a case study, and see if we can match the Investor to an alternative investment asset class that offer the performance e and characteristics he or she is searching for.

John has a total pension portfolio of £250,000, held in a flexible Self Invested pension Plan wrapper (SIPP). John chose to move his assets into a SIPP some time ago in order to take more control over decisions affecting his investments, rather than be reliant on a Financial Advisor who can only advise on a couple of asset classes – equities and bonds.

John pulled 50% of his portfolio into cash 12 months ago, with the remainder held in defensive stocks and bonds. He has decided to allocate 10% of his overall pension to non-financial, real-asset alternative investments. He does not need income, and he is prepared to hold an asset for up to 10 years, aiming to capture capital growth. John has self-certified as a Sophisticated Investor, but does not wants to invest in funds, he wants tangible assets.

Taking into account John’s position and requirements, it might be suggested that the following alternatives may be a good starting point for Johns research process:

Fine Wine
Land – Particularly productive agricultural land
Timber Properties
Collectibles

All of these assets display certain characteristics that John might find particularly appealing. Fine wine – when selected and managed by an expert – has been shown to deliver returns of up to 20 per cent per annum. The forward looking story looks good too, as increasing demand from Asia, particularly a growing wealthy class in China is demanding more fine wines that the world can currently produce, and they are prepared to pay increasingly large sums of money as wines get older and rarer as more of a particular year is consumed. This increase in demand for a finite asset is what drives capital growth, and a good wine investment manager might help John to pick and choose a suitable portfolio, or cellar’ of wine and also advise, perhaps on a discretionary basis, when to buy and sell to maximise profit and minimise risk. Also, the performance equities has absolutely no bearing on the investment performance of fine wines, allowing John to collect long-term capital appreciation.

Much the same thing can be said for collectible such as rare stamps, where again demand is driven by increasing rarity and increasing demand from wealthy overseas and domestic collectors and investors.

Agricultural land also benefits from increasing demand, as populations in developing economies grow and incomes rise, they demand more protein (meat), which requires many more resources to produce than their traditional grain-based diets. It takes about 3kg of grain to produce 1 kg of beef, so this adds considerable pressure to current agricultural productivity. At the same time we lose millions of hectares of arable land every year to urbanisation, degradation and climate change, so it is likely that farmland will continue to become more valuable over time, again giving John the long-term capital appreciation, as well as separation from financial markets that he requires. This would also generate income from farm rents, or perhaps even through a joint venture farming agreement that would allow John to share in the profits from harvesting.

Forestry investment may also offer John a potentials alternative. Essentially, purchasing a timber-producing property, through leasehold or freehold, and simply sitting back and watching the trees grow bigger and more valuable each year, a biological process that cannot be interrupted by an economic crisis. The actual price of timber also moves every year, having risen by an annual average of 6% for the past 100 years. This means John capture true growth in its truest sense. A huge number of institutional investors are investing in forestry, including pension funds, university endowments (Harvard and Yale to name but two) and hedge funds, all of which are investing in forestry for long-term capital growth. Again, the same principles of supply and demand hold true for forestry. We require more timber as the enormous populations of China and India enter into their most aggressive and resource-intensive phase of growth, requiring more timber for paper, biomass and construction, whilst at the same time natural forests are now protected, creating huge demand for sustainable sourced plantation timber.

In summary, there are a range of alternative investments for John to consider, and really the best thing for him to do would be to conduct his own research in to each subject, and speak to a range of Advisors with specific experience of each individual asset class and choose to work with a professional that can substitute a good track record of investment selection/management for the options he chooses. So, speak to a few fine wine brokers and measure their pitch against the knowledge gained from researching the asset class. Speak to a forestry investment advisor and agriculture investment advisor, and choose to work with someone that knows their sector, and has delivered success for Clients previously. Heck, why not ask to speak to any potential investment partner’s previous clients; I’m sure that any Advisor worth his salt would be proud to have a Client sing their praises.

David Garner is Partner at DGC Asset Management, an alternative investments boutique specialising in property transactions in the agriculture and renewable energy sectors.

Although crude oil is still vastly available in the earth’s crust, it is not an infinite resource. At some point it will eventually be exhausted. The demand for crude oil has increased by gigantic proportions. However, discoveries of new oil fields and investing in the oil industry has helped keep up with the increasing demand for oil. The crucial question is, how long will the oil resources last?

Advanced technology has made drilling oil more effective and efficient. With the aid of new methods it is possible to draw almost 65% of the oil as opposed to the old methods. Better infrastructure and more investments have also made the drilling of oil wells more effective. Currently most of the transportation is dependent on oil and many industries are born out of or lean on by products of petroleum. Although alternative sources of energy are now applied like solar and wind energy, it is still a long way to be completely independent of crude oil.

There has been much debate and predictions of the remaining resources of oil, over the last few years. A lot of factors need to be taken into consideration before oil resources can be declared scarce. Even oil wells proven depleted can be able to draw crude if technology advances. In such a scenario it is impossible to make the accurate observation of when the oil resources will be completely exhausted. Such a change can make predictions go utterly false. The statistics of countries reporting their proven reserves of oil also is not much assuring to rely on. While some countries are obliged by law to report honest statistics, others are influenced by political and economic conditions. So there is a strong possibility that these statistics do not paint the true picture.

Analysts, economists with a positive outlook believe that the search for alternative sources of energy will be given an impetus long before the world sees scarcity of oil. High oil prices will be the stimulus for spurring the development in renewable energy. When prices on oil are low there is very less reason to seek out alternative sources of crude oil. In fact as the oil price soars, alternatives sources of energy may prove more competitive. However, unconventional sources of energy will only be in demand when they can be exploited against high prices on petroleum. The alternative sources need to be at competitive prices than crude and to be economically feasible.

Kyles Humphrey is an accomplished journalist in oil related fields, who regularly writes articles related to oil prices & indexes and crude oil including tips on investment in oil. Please visit oil.com for more details.

Private investing is another option for people who want their money to grow over a period of time. A lot of the investment opportunities available in this area involve ideas for start-up companies that financial institutions are not willing to give a chance to. This is why private investors are also called Angel Investors because they help those budding entrepreneurs to realize their business goals. It’s quite risky considering that you are investing in a start-up company and that you would have to help develop it and sometimes take an active management role to ensure a good return on investment. Surely, this type of investment is not for the faint of heart, but it can really give you good returns if you choose the right company to help and invest in.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Private Investing

Private investing has its own pros and cons. The obvious disadvantage is the risk you should be willing to take when investing in a start-up company. Unlike investing in stocks of an established company or corporation, you will have to deal with the growing pains of building the business up from scratch and this may mean losing money in the process. This type of investment also requires you to play an active role in the business, so if you’re looking to sit back and wait for your money to grow like stock market investments, this may not be a good option for you. The advantage to private investing can outweigh the negative aspects if it’s done properly. As a private or angel investor, you are helping people who need someone to believe in their business plan and give them the financial support they need. As mentioned earlier, this is a hands-on investment option, which can be a good thing if you have business experience and you want more control of what the company does with your money. Since it’s your money that the company is using for its operations, your input is valuable during the decision making process and you can even take a more active management role if necessary.

As a private investor, the return on investment you get will depend on the decisions you make and how you handle your share of the business responsibilities. Investments like these can work for or against you depending on the choices that you make from selecting the right company to invest in to making sound business and financial decisions for the good of the company. Private investing may be a big risk, but it can be very rewarding if you know what you’re doing.

How to Generate Passive Income

Most people agree that the key to success is diligence. They are afraid to get behind the race. These proactive people have proven to become stable in their life. On the other hand, the lazy don’t have any problem simply because they don’t have anything as well. Both types of people have chosen to be so. It sounds fair, doesn’t it?

However, this equilibrium is the thing of the past. If this is our mindset, we will surely be surprised at the great fortune of those who have exerted less effort and at the frustration of those who have done their best. It doesn’t mean that life is unfair. In fact, we earn not only from what we do but also from what we don’t do. The former is known as active income; the latter, passive.

Active income is an income we generate from our hard work. When we work for money, it is active income. But, when it is our own money that works for us, it is passive income. Passive income is an income we generate from our investment. How to generate passive income without active intervention is not a kind of magic that everyone could have.

How to generate passive income? Passive income is generated when our investment earns because of our timely decision. In this type of income, we are paid for the decision we make and for the risk we take. When we become afraid of investing, we tend not to make any decision. Consequently, nothing happens to our money. To generate passive income, we should make the right decision on what and when to invest and not decide about not investing. We must also calculate the risk – the higher the risk, the higher the return. The lower the risk means the longer it takes to get the potential return. It depends on who we are and what investment fits our personality. Proactive people are naturally career oriented so they can successfully generate active income. On the other hand, patient people are wise decision makers and risk takers.

Now, the question is which type of earners we should be. Active earners have full control of how much they could earn, but there is limit in the amount as there is limit in their energy and time. When they stop, so does their income. However, passive earners are more efficient in the sense that they enjoy the unlimited potential of earning high with less energy. Moreover, passive earners can be both active and passive earners. Apparently, passive income is more advantageous.

It is not difficult to know how to generate passive income. There is a lot of available information around us that can help us learn to begin this with. We generally have heard about investing and among the popular are stock market, bonds, mutual funds, insurance, pension plans, and treasury notes. Before investing, it is important to study your choice investment. We don’t have to be the jack of all trades. What is important is that we understand the risk and the potential of the market we want to enter and start small just for a try. As time goes by, we will gain experience and will master the market we have chosen. In the advent of technology, it has become easier to get more information about any field of endeavor. The internet offers numerous tools we need to become equipped.

The most crucial part of how to generate passive income is our attitude toward investment. Some people think that investment is done in order to sustain our daily need and this is a wrong notion. If so, it is not any more investment. It is livelihood. Our immediate need can only be sustained by active income. To depend on investment for daily needs is irresponsible. We should work in order to live and we invest because we secure our tomorrow. Real investors are future oriented. They don’t exactly make money right away. But their money makes them. That is the reason why we call this condition passive. Everybody’s need today is different from our need in the future. Our immediate need is answered by our immediate action and immediate results make us grow. But passive income is not something that should make us grow. This is something that we should grow. So, whatever we earn now is what we need now. Active income is the reflection of we do now. The right attitude toward passive income is to treat it as a separate living entity. Active income is what we need now. And passive income is what our investment need now. It is like a pet that we should raise.

What about business? Is it a kind of active income or passive? Actually, it is the combination of both. A businessman actively controls his cash flows to sustain his daily needs and at the same time spare some bigger portion for his business as a separate entity. However, businesses are complex nowadays depending on their size. Large corporations are mostly owned by a number of people called stockholders. They hire managers and even CEO’s to actively control their operations. Sometimes, they intervene in a macro level. But their control and effort are limited compared to the significant income they get every year if their companies continuously grow.

For these people, these large companies are their source of passive income. For small businessmen, they must exert all their effort for their business. They have trouble making their businesses grow because they also depend on the active income they generate from operating their businesses. Would this mean that in order to generate passive income, we should have had large capital to invest? Not necessarily! We can do so by investing in shares of stocks even in smaller amount of money. This is also true with mutual funds that pool individual investments in small amount to make it one big investment. This means that we generate passive income like big investors.

In a nutshell, we need to learn how to generate passive income while maintaining our active income so as not to compromise the balance between these two types of benefits. How to generate passive income is to keep our active income.

Michael F. Anyayahan is a freelance forex trader and writer. To learn more, visit: http://www.forexuniverse.yolasite.com

In the current investing climate many investors are seeking out alternatives to traditional investment assets in an effort to boost poor returns and bolster the limp performance of their pension portfolios. While stocks and shares continue to display the kind of up-and-down volatility that would make a rollercoaster jealous, real-assets including fine wine, stamps, land and forestry have all continued to grow in values as rising global incomes combine with a growing global population to boost demand against a backdrop of limited supply.

Whenever supplies of an asset are limited and demand increases, we see the value increase as buyers compete for the best assets, so those investors in control of finite resources are likely to continue to capture capital growth regardless of the performance of the wider economy.

Whilst in is certainly true that some alternative investment assets rely on the existence of wealth for their end-use market; for example stamps and fine wine rely on the existence of wealthy buyers, it is also true that certain essential assets will enjoy a demand even if the global economy were to collapse tomorrow. These safe haven alternative investments include agricultural land, energy-generating assets, infrastructure and commodity driven properties such as forestry investments.

There is a limited global stock of land suitable for agricultural production and demand for food commodities and feedstock for animal feed and biofuels in growing exponentially as developing nations expend their populace and rising incomes lead to greater consumption of commodities. Indeed the giant populations of India and China are entering their most resource-intensive phase of growth, just like the west during the industrial revolution. The difference here is that the populations and resource requirements of these countries is much larger. This makes agricultural land a precious resource that is likely to become one of the most valuable assets on earth. Not only that, but goof quality farmland produces annual income from the production and sale of food commodities, so income streams also rise as food prices increase. It is worth noting that the amount of arable land per person on the plant has halved since only the 1960’s, going some way to explaining why so many institutional investors are holding more and more agriculture investments.

Renewable energy investments that produce income from solar, wind or agricultural crops are also seen as a potentially great alternative investment opportunity as they continue to generate revenue regardless of dividend performance in traditional investment markets. As long as the wind keeps blowing and the sun keeps shining, those in control of renewable energy investment assets will continue to earn up to 20 per cent per annul income yields based on current project establishment costs.

For the long-term investor, forestry investments continue to grow in any economic weather, because the majority of financial returns is actually driven by the biological growth of trees, not the performance of the economy. Whilst a relatively buoyant economy is essential in order for there to be demand for timber products, it is growth in emerging market economies what will drive future demand, and so investors who own a stake in a commercial forestry investment property close to emerging markets are likely to capture non-correlated growth and be able to create substantial revenues from the sale of essential commodities as trees turn into valuable timber stands.

In summary, alternative investments are popular because they generate returns not dependent on traditional markets, but investors should always be careful as these kinds of real-asset alternative investment all carry asset, location, sector and counterparty specific risks that many investor may not recognise or be able to screen for, so the use of an experienced consultant with a good track record of identifying successful alternative investment assets is essential in order to avoid undue risk and maximise upside potential.

David Garner is Partner at DGC Asset Management, an alternative investments boutique specialising in property transactions in the agriculture and renewable energy sectors.

Last year the stock market roller coaster had a lot of investors wary about investing in stocks. In a single day, investors lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Quite a few IRA’s were completely wiped out and many took nose dives. While all this happened, comic investing flourished. Demand for certain issues rose in value, and certain golden and silver age comic books set record prices in 2011.

A CGC 9.6 Amazing Fantasy #15 (1st Appearance of Spider-Man) sold for $1,100,000 in March 2011, while a Fantastic Four #1 CGC 9.4 sold for $300,000 in 2011, beating its previous sales record of $210,000 in 2010.

There’s no doubt that long term comic investing can be quite profitable, and for those who are new to the idea, there’s one simple secret that can help you when it comes to investing in comics.

What is it?

It’s comic book movies. Yes, Hollywood has turned to the superhero genre for fresh content when it comes to movies. What’s better is these movies are extremely successful.

Learning about which movies are rumored or even coming out for a certain superhero is critical in choosing comic books to invest in. Researching and keeping up to date on the development of a certain comic-related movie is vital, because the hype pushes the demand and the value of the comic a lot quicker than it normally would.

A movie about Superman will spark interest and demand in his books. Pretty simple, huh? Not really.

Not just any comic will do. Sure, Captain America: The First Avenger did spark more interest in Captain America comics, and they sold quite well during the hype of the movie. However, we are talking about investing in comics that will rise in monetary value. Just because it’s a Captain America book doesn’t mean it will rise in value.

In this case, the values of only certain comic book issues are increased during a movie’s hype. Finding these key issues is just another important part of making wise comic book investment choices. You need to research what’s going on with these movies, and not just grab any thing off the shelf just because that character will come out with a movie.

So know you know one simple secret to help guide you to smarter investment comic choices. Now, it’s time to find out just which of these key issues you should be on the hunt for.

Discover the top comic books to invest in for 2012? Visit the link to read more articles about comic investing and which comic books will increase in value quickly and steadily for the next few years.

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