In This month's Investment News we try to understand the risks involved with Alternative investments, which are becoming ever more popular due to the current traditional investment markets downturn. Alternative investments are never safe because of the fact that many of them are simply not backed securities. They normally do not fluctuate according to the market that makes them separate from the traditional investments. It is a fact that alternative investments are giving much higher rates of return and is directly proportional to risk too.

With proper strategy alternative investments be very lucrative . If the investment is by an individual or some unknown company the risk factor is always there however with proper strategy and understanding of the pros and cons, alternative investments can be very beneficial. The benefits of alternative investments include reduced volatility, low correlation with other investments and in some cases more liquidity, many are short term, high yield and offer a very low entry level sometime as low as just one thousand pound. There are some institutional investors that do understand the potential of alternative investments and allocate some percentage of their portfolio to alternative investments so as to increase the profit ratio. In comparison to the traditional market that moves with the economy, alternative investments can be controlled with proper initiatives and steps taken at the right time. All that is required is to keep a watch on the investment whether it is a long term investment or a short one.

SIPP approved alternative investments are different as they have been looked over and approved by the HMRC as a good investment, so good in fact that they are fully approved for transfer of any pension funds that you may have earning very little is a standard pension fund.

The London Stock Exchange is supposed to be playing a vital role in the promotion of alternative investments. Due to the tax advantages and less regulatory issues that AIM (Alternative Investments Market) provides, alternative investments have been a major attraction to small and large investors. Especially for the sake of small investors alternative investment market is a good investment opportunity as it allows the investors to issue shares in the market regardless of the number of the shares. Further, in the past few years some companies from the main market have moved to AIM from the main market as it does not come under the stock exchange regulatory authority, and thus helping these companies grow. AIM has proved to be a good investment platform for all the individuals with good knowledge of risk management requirements or with strong internal controls. In short one of the most popular promoters of alternative investments is an alternative investment market.

It should be kept in mind that past results is not applicable to alternative investments as they are not related to the main market. Their risk factor tends to generate good returns for the investors. There are some examples of alternative investments such as managed funds, hedged funds, real estate etc. There are experts available worldwide who has experience in alternative investments and can guide the investor about the pros and cons of a particular investment. Good investments require thorough knowledge of the investment idea and with proper steps taken they can be beneficial. Everyone being an individual or any qualified eligible person having risk management capabilities or proper management can deal with alternative investments. It is not important that a good investment will prove good for you too; therefore homework must be done before taking any alternative investment plan, plus keeping an eye on investments news provided via impartial websites will give you piece of mind in the fact that if your investment in listed on these websites it is far less likely to be a scam.

Finally, With any investment be it traditional or alternative if it sounds too good to be true then it usually is, a fine example is the Minha Casa Minha Vida ( my house my life) social housing scheme in Brazil, this is a government scheme so fully backed by UK and Brazil banks, It is a short term ethical investment that can see you earn 20% ROI ( return on investment) in under 12 months, sale price of Minha Casa Minha Vida units is set by the government so deciding to skip at the all companies offering to between 15% and 20% and choosing a company offering 60%+ ROI will simply see you losing all your investment, so take care and happy investing.