Are Alternative Investment Options Only For ‘Professional’ Investors?

In recent weeks, as we get you up to speed on alternative investing, we have discussed how to invest in startups via StartEngine:

While The Juice can’t recommend all of the investments on StartEngine, we highly recommend the platform itself as a way to participate in venture capital. It’s straightforward and, as you navigate the site, StartEngine makes it easy to find opportunities based on sector and other factors, including the size of an opportunity or its popularity on StartEngine.

We also covered how to invest in wine, whiskey, art and other collectibles:

Alternative investing is new and can seem weird and feel risky. However, if you do your homework and start small, you’ll find that allocating a portfolio of your long-term portfolio to a variety of alternative investments can help diversify your portfolio and possibly lead to long-term returns.

Yes, it’s all about diversification.

Solidifying a core long-term investing strategy first. One that’s probably anchored with broad market ETFs and maybe a few of your favorite individual stocks. Ideally, you throw in some income producers such as dividend payers and bonds. 

From there, many investors are tempted to speculate. But this is where we think things can get dangerous. For a long time, we have all had easy access to penny stocks, meme stocks and options. While you can make money in all three areas, it’s super easy to lose money in them. 

We’re not saying you should abandon old school speculation, especially if you’re good at identifying and riding momentum or using options strategically. But we are saying that more than ever before you have other options available to diversify alongside your traditional holdings. You have access to alternative investments via products and advanced strategies that only the big money could tap in the old days of investing. 

As we were starting to write this edition of The Juice about Yieldstreet, an alt platform with a wide range of options, we saw a (paywalled) story in Fortune about the company:

Investment firm Yieldstreet, which made its name offering alternative assets like art and fine wine, is raising another round of capital, according to four banking and private equity sources.

Yieldstreet has hired advisors and is targeting $75 million to $100 million for the round, the people said. The fintech is also considering a sale or a combination capital raise plus sale…

Interesting. 

While The Juice doesn’t know if this is good or bad — according to Fortune, Yieldstreet hasn’t updated its valuation in a few years — it’s worth keeping an eye on. The Fortune story puts Yieldstreet’s estimated value at $800 million and goes on to note:

Yieldstreet has long said its goal was to even the playing field for retail investors, though some think its offerings are best suited for professional investors seeking diversification and wealth-building opportunities.

This is even more interesting to us. So, instead of doing a full-blown review of the platform, let’s dig into this idea that Yieldstreet’s alternative investment options “are best suited for professional investors.” The Juice doesn’t agree with this. At least not completely. 

Yieldstreet, which as about 500,000 members, uses this as its main marketing line:

Diversify your portfolio with private market investment offerings once only reserved for the 1%.

Yieldstreet also says it has more alt options available than any other platform. These products include art, private credit, real estate, transportation projects and short-term notes. Across all of its offerings, since inception returns range from 5% to 13% and average 9.6%. 

You need $10,000 minimum to get into Yieldstreet’s Alternative Income Fund, which gives you access to its broad assortment of investments.

They’re worth checking out. 

So as far as only making sense for professional investors. We wonder who has this opinion? Probably the big money. And we think it’s like the same reason why large factions on Wall Street don’t like crypto and couldn’t stand that investors used social media to wreak havoc during the pandemic. 

If it’s a trick, tool or perfectly straightforward investment opportunity that was once something only available to the 1%, the big money can’t stand seeing things get even a little democratized. Even worse, if relatively small individual investors come up with tricks and tools of their own to beat big banks and brokerages at their own game. And twice as worse if the little guy gains access to complicated investment funds and strategies it doesn’t have the resources to create in a traditional brokerage account. 

Ultimately, The Juice thinks that there’s nothing with more access to more products. The big money shouldn’t be deciding what’s good or bad for the rest of us unless we ask them for their advice. 

The Bottom Line: None of this should imply that The Juice thinks you should head off half-cocked into alternative investments you know nothing about. At the same time, we think you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not considering them and finding solid places that make sense to help round out your portfolio. This is why we’re dedicating so much time in alts, and will continue to throughout the rest of the year. 

Then, in 2025, we kick off the new year, starting from how to form a core portfolio to prepare yourself to diversify with appropriate alternatives. So, forward this email to a friend and tell them to subscribe for free to The Juice so they don’t miss a thing.

• How To Invest In Private Companies on StartEngine
• Beyond Traditional Investments: Embrace Diversity
• How To Invest In Wine, Whiskey, Art And Collectibles Online
• Check Out The Juice’s Favorite ETF Screen