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What is Private Equity?
Private Equity (‘PE’) is an alternative investment class that concentrates purely on private companies (i.e. firms that are not publicly-traded). PE firms utilise large amounts of capital (equity and/or debt) to purchase private companies in order to restructure the acquired company before selling them at a higher price.
What are Hedge Funds?
Hedge Funds are an alternative investment vehicle that pools capital from accredited and/or institutional investors to invest aggressively in relatively liquid assets. Unlike the PE and VC industry, the investment strategies employed by hedge fund managers vary drastically between firms as they actively search for excess returns, or alpha, for their investors.
What is Venture Capital?
Venture Capital ('VC') exists to service a gap created by the structures and rules of capital markets. In essence, when an entrepreneur comes up with an innovative and novel idea, there are no other institutions to which the inventor can turn to in order to obtain funds to realise their concept into a viable commercial business.
What are Commodities?
Commodities are a fungible good/service that are often used as inputs for the production of other goods/ services. To put more simply, commodities of the same type and similar quality are of equal monetary value, much like how two $100 bills are of the same value (i.e. 1kg of gold has the same monetary value regardless of the location or company in which it was extracted from.
What is Real Estate?
Real estate is a tangible asset, made up of land and anything attached to the land space, i.e. the buildings and any natural resources within the land space (natural resources refer to uncultivated flora and fauna, farmed crops, livestock and also mineral (deposits). Real estate is commonly subdivided into 3 categories:​
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Residential real estate includes undeveloped land and housing complexes.
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Commercial real estate includes non residential structures, such as office buildings, warehouses and retail buildings.
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Industrial real estate includes manufacturing buildings and property, such as warehouses.
What are Fund of Funds?
Well, if you don't want to put all your faith in a single person, why not invest in a bunch of them. That is exactly what a fund of funds is for. Fund of Funds allows for broader diversification by holding a portfolio that contains different underlying portfolios of other funds. These holdings replace any investing directly in bonds, stocks, and other types of securities.
Instead, these fund of funds will invest in other mutual funds or hedge funds
What are Derivatives?
A derivative is a synthetic security that derives its price from a physical market commodity or underlying asset; mainly used to manage risk exposures. The value of the underlying asset controls the derivative value. As such, derivatives do not have a fixed value over time and market conditions play an important role in deciding the value of a derivative.
What are Collectibles?
As the name would suggest, collectibles are items that are collected and resold for a much higher value than originally bought at. The price 'hike for future resells are due to popularity and/or rarity of the item (i.e. it is based on the perceived value). An item is classified as a collectible if it is less than 100 years old, and an antique otherwise. These items can be anything, ranging from cars, vinyl records, furniture, clothing, wine and well, a collectible may even be something unassuming like a toy.
What are Cryptocurrencies?
Cryptocurrency can be thought of as a digital virtual currency secured by encryption techniques that make it impossible to duplicate or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology - a distributed, decentralized, public ledger.
What are SPAC's?
A Special Purpose Acquisition Company
(SPAC), also commonly known as blank check companies, is a company with no commercial operations that is formed strictly to raise money through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for the purpose of buying another company. SPACs have seen much growth in recent years, with more than 50 SPACs in the US alone and $21.5 billion worth of IPO funds raised in the first half of 2020.
2025 AIS Careers guide
Learn about AIS, the flagship events and career opportunities we offer. With practical advice on resumes and interviews, this guide helps you navigate the path into alternative investments.
