Investment Banking For Dummies

Chapter 17

Understanding Alternative Investments and Asset Management

In This Chapter

Getting an overview of alternative investments

Understanding why investment banks engage in asset management

Getting an introduction to asset management tools

Becoming familiar with the conflicts in investment banking

Discovering how investment banks manage conflicts

If you're like most people, when you hear the term investments, you immediately think of stocks and bonds. Stocks and bonds are the vanilla and chocolate of the investing world. There is nothing wrong with vanilla and chocolate — they're quite tasty. But just as ice cream lovers often want to satiate their palates with more exotic flavors, investors are increasingly looking to expand their holdings into assets beyond stocks and bonds. The broad class of assets outside traditional stocks and bonds is referred to as alternative investments, and it's rapidly gaining in popularity with both institutional and individual investors. Investment ...