Alternative Investments: Private Markets, Hedge Funds and Collectibles
Learn how private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, private credit, P2P lending, infrastructure and collectibles really work, how their returns and risks are measured, and how to judge fees, liquidity and track records before you commit money.
Self-study course Self-study course: written lessons, videos and downloadable materials for independent learning. There is no supervision, assessment, individual feedback or tutoring. Self-check quizzes are evaluated automatically in your browser — we do not see your results.
All 12 lessons free
Before you start
- ETFs, Funds & Long-Term Investing (fund structure, costs, asset allocation)
- Bonds & Fixed Income in Depth (credit spreads, default risk)
- Comfort with percentages, compounding and simple spreadsheets
What you will be able to do
- Explain why reported volatility of private assets understates their risk and unsmooth a return series
- Calculate IRR, MOIC, DPI and a European fee waterfall for a private equity fund
- Model dilution across venture rounds and judge a venture portfolio under a power-law outcome
- Compare hedge fund and UCITS liquid-alternative terms, including high-water marks and lock-ups
- Estimate the net yield of private credit and P2P loans after defaults, recoveries and fees
- Build an alternatives allocation with a liquidity budget and a written due-diligence checklist
Lessons in this course
What counts as an alternative: the illiquidity premium, valuation smoothing and why reported volatility understates risk
Define alternative investments, understand where the illiquidity premium comes from, and unsmooth an appraisal-based return series to see the real volatility.
Private equity: buyout mechanics, GP and LP structure, the J-curve, IRR versus MOIC versus DPI and the fee waterfall
Follow a leveraged buyout from purchase to exit, read IRR, MOIC, DPI and TVPI correctly, and calculate how a European fee waterfall splits the profit.
Venture capital and angel investing: the power law, dilution across rounds, pro-rata rights and realistic loss rates
Model how an early stake is diluted through seed, Series A and B, calculate the cost of pro-rata rights, and judge a venture portfolio under power-law outcomes.
Hedge funds: long-short equity, global macro, CTA and arbitrage strategies, fee terms, lock-ups and what UCITS liquid alternatives change
Understand the main hedge fund strategies and their exposures, calculate fees with a high-water mark, and see what changes when a strategy is packaged as a UCITS liquid alternative.
Private credit and direct lending: floating rates, covenants, default and recovery assumptions and private credit funds
Break a private loan's yield into base rate, spread and fees, test a maintenance covenant, and estimate what a private credit fund investor nets after expected losses and fund fees.
P2P lending and crowdinvesting platforms in Europe: buyback guarantees, platform risk, loan-level diversification and net returns after defaults
Understand what you legally hold on European P2P and crowdinvesting platforms, why a buyback guarantee is only as good as its issuer, and calculate a realistic net return after defaults, recoveries and cash drag.
Infrastructure and renewable energy: regulated cash flows, inflation linkage, listed versus unlisted vehicles and yieldcos
Understand where infrastructure cash flows come from, how inflation linkage works in numbers, and how listed funds, unlisted funds and yieldcos differ in price, liquidity and risk.
Art, wine, watches and collectibles: price indices, survivorship bias, transaction and storage costs and fractional-ownership platforms
Learn why collectible price indices overstate what an owner earns, calculate a full round-trip cost with auction fees and storage, and judge fractional-ownership platforms.
ELTIF 2.0 and semi-liquid funds: structure, minimums, redemption windows, feeder funds and layered costs
Understand what changed with ELTIF 2.0, how redemption windows and liquidity buffers are linked by the EU technical standards, and how to add up costs across feeder, fund and underlying layers.
Fee and liquidity traps: total expense across layers, gating, side pockets, exit discounts and secondary markets
Recognise the mechanisms that stop you getting your money out of an alternative investment at the value shown on the statement, and price them before you invest.
Due diligence on alternatives: interpreting track records, benchmark choice, survivorship bias in indices and reading the KID and prospectus
Learn how fund track records can be flattered, how to pick a fair benchmark, why alternative indices look better than their members, and which parts of the KID and prospectus to read first.
An alternatives allocation framework with a liquidity budget and a due-diligence checklist
Build a written framework for alternatives: set a liquidity budget, size the illiquid share under stress, pace commitments over time and run a reusable due-diligence checklist before every investment.
Options Strategies in Practice: Spreads, Income and Position Management
After this course, continue with "Options Strategies in Practice: Spreads, Income and Position Management" to learn how listed options can hedge and shape the liquid part of your portfolio.
View course outline