Alternative Investments Course Update & 2023 Plans

Preparing for a future where alternative investments are not alternative

Hi! It’s George from Investorama, your guide to the future of investing - without the hype.

This is the last newsletter of the year, and it’s mainly about the upcoming changes to the courses and content. I’ll keep it short and sweet. Happy Holidays!

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Changes to the Courses

A couple of years ago, as I was watching the series Billions, I had the idea to use the financial scenes to share some of the things I had learned during a career spent structuring and selling derivatives and alternative investments to institutional investors. It started with YouTube videos, then courses about alternative investments, accessible to all.

I hadn’t realized at the time that alternatives (now often referred to as ‘Alts’ were about to become mainstream. Few things in the investing world generate the same level of consensus as the growth of alternatives. Preqin expects AUM to grow from $13.32tn today to $23.21tn in 2026. The increase is expected to come mainly from private investors. Regulations are changing, legacy managers are building new instruments for private investors, and fintechs are finding new ways to provide access to various assets.

These changes affect what a course on Alts should look like. My goal is to build the reference for DIY allocation to Alts.

Some key principles:

• Cover the fundamentals both from a quantitative and qualitative perspective

• Critically assess new opportunities from a perspective of both the asset class and the distribution platform (cf. Art and Masterworks)

• Include Defi: it’s not usually included in Alts, but for a private investor, I think it now presents itself as an allocation choice.

• Do NOT pitch: the financial industry will build up its ‘educational’ content on Alts as part of its marketing effort, but it will be biased.

• Keep it simple and accessible. Everyone who can access Alts should also be able to understand them without requiring a degree in finance.

Currently, there are three courses available on the Thinkific platform.

1. Fundamentals of Alternative Investments

2. Consistent Yield with Market Neutral Strategies on Defi

3. Billions Companion Course on Hedge Funds

Upcoming changes by 15 January:

• 1 and 2 will be merged into one course on Alts and stay on Thinkific

• The Billions Companion Course on Hedge Funds will move to another platform

• If you follow - that means there will be just one course on Thinkific with enhanced features (updates, communities, quizzes)

You don't need to do anything if you’re signed up for ‘Fundamentals of Alternative Investments’. For the others, you can still have access until 15 January, and some of you have been contacted individually. If you have questions or comments, please reply to this email.

Changes to the Podcast

Aside from investing, I’m interested in fintech - I mainly talk about it with guests on The Fintech Files podcast.

The two are related. In 2022, I thought I could combine them into one content umbrella, but… it didn’t really work.

In 2023, they’re going to be separated. The Fintech Files will be rebranded to FintechOrama and a refreshed vision: to offer a clear perspective on the technologies that are changing finance.

Each episode will be a deep dive into a key topic, such as payments, regulations & risk, and data & systems, with analysis and insights to help you make sense of new trends and technologies.

Happy Holidays and I’m excited to be back in touch in 2023.

Until then, I leave you with what I think is an important read, a guest post by hedge fund CIO and fintwit Benn Eifert on Noahpinion, with some hard truths about investing.

On bullshit in investing