Alternatives

Popular Articles

Alternatives 30.10.2026

Direct Lending: Recovery Rates in a Downturn

Direct lending recovery rates in a downturn describe how much investors get back after borrowers default. This guide explains what recovery rate means, why it changes during recessions, and which loan terms and collateral factors drive outcomes. It’s for informed readers comparing credit risk, reading investor reports, or evaluating how underwriting assumptions hold up when cash flows weaken. You’ll learn practical ways to interpret recovery metrics, spot common reporting gaps, and stress-test assumptions using real-world loan mechanics.

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Alternatives 26.10.2026

Commodity Roll Costs at Different Curve Slopes

Commodity roll costs describe the gain or loss from closing a futures position and reopening it in a different contract month. The cost depends on the futures curve shape: backwardation, contango, and how steep the slope is. This article explains how curve slope affects roll economics in practical terms for investors and hedgers, why roll costs can dominate returns, and how to interpret common signals. Readers will learn what drives roll yield, what to watch in real quotes, and how to avoid common measurement mistakes.

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Alternatives 22.10.2026

Private Credit Liquidity: Gates and Redemption Terms

Private credit funds often promise income, yet liquidity can be limited by gates, lockups, and redemption terms. This guide explains how these mechanics work, what investors should look for in fund documents, and how redemption delays can change realized returns. It’s for investors evaluating private credit funds, interval funds, and evergreen structures who want practical decision support, including example scenarios, a checklist for reading terms, and common mistakes that lead to surprises.

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Alternatives 16.10.2026

Private Credit Covenants: Maintenance vs Incurrence

Private credit covenants set rules for borrowers after a loan closes. This guide explains maintenance and incurrence covenants in plain English, with examples of how each affects refinancing, asset sales, and equity raises. It helps investors and borrowers read covenant language, model covenant headroom, and plan actions that trigger or avoid defaults. You’ll learn common misunderstandings, practical checklist items, and questions to ask before signing.

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Alternatives 10.10.2026

Alternative Assets: Illiquidity Premium After Fees

Alternative assets can offer returns that differ from stocks and bonds, but the “illiquidity premium” claim often ignores fees, trading frictions, and valuation lag. This article explains how illiquidity shows up in real portfolios, how to estimate the premium after costs, and which documents to read before committing. It is for investors comparing private credit, private equity, real estate, and similar funds who want a practical checklist, common pitfalls, and scenario-based examples.

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Alternatives 04.10.2026

Tokenized Assets: Liquidity and Custody Risks in 2026

Tokenized assets turn rights to real-world or financial instruments into blockchain tokens. This guide helps informed readers understand liquidity and custody risks they may face in 2026, including settlement delays, market fragmentation, smart-contract failure modes, and legal uncertainty. You’ll learn how token liquidity actually forms, what custody arrangements change, which controls to ask for, and how to compare platforms using practical checklists and examples.

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Alternatives 28.09.2026

Infrastructure Funds: Inflation Linkage vs Liquidity

Infrastructure funds pool money to build or operate long-lived assets such as roads, ports, data centers, and utilities. This matters because cash flows can be affected by inflation, interest rates, and refinancing risk. For investors comparing inflation-linked strategies with more liquid approaches, this guide explains how each structure works, what risks show up in fund documents, and how to stress-test assumptions using practical checks, timelines, and fee/valuation details.

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Alternatives 22.09.2026

Commodity Roll Yield: Contango vs Backwardation

Commodity roll yield describes how returns change when an investor holds futures and repeatedly “rolls” positions from one contract to the next. This matters for people tracking commodity ETFs, futures accounts, or long-only commodity strategies, because the futures curve shape can add or subtract performance even when spot prices look stable. This article explains contango and backwardation, how roll yield works in practice, common measurement pitfalls, and how to evaluate risk using observable curve data and contract specifications.

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Alternatives 16.09.2026

Crypto Allocation: VaR at 1%, 2% and 5% Weights

Learn how Value at Risk (VaR) at 1%, 2%, and 5% confidence levels changes the way you size a crypto allocation. It is for investors who want a disciplined risk view, not a price forecast, and who need to translate VaR outputs into portfolio weights. You will learn what VaR measures, what it does not measure, how weights interact with volatility and correlations, and how to sanity-check results using simple scenarios and backtests.

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Alternatives 10.09.2026

Gold Allocation: Volatility vs Portfolio Correlation

Gold allocation is a portfolio decision that mixes market volatility with how gold moves relative to stocks and bonds. This guide explains why gold can hedge some risks while still swinging in price, how correlation changes across regimes, and how to test allocations using historical data. Readers will learn practical ways to size a gold sleeve, choose benchmarks, avoid common traps, and interpret results without assuming gold behaves the same in every market cycle.

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