Alternative Investing.  It’s quite a broad term, covering a range of investments and, on occasion, not without controversy: misselling, poor returns, improper dealings. But there are also firms operating in this space successfully and offer good returns. So how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? We put that question to Hunter Jones Co-Founder, Dean O’Neill.

“Alternative investment is anything that isn’t traditional and isn’t your mainstream norm, “said Mr O’Neill.

“Traditional lending and investments are bank-based investments, bonds, stock and, of course, cash.

“Anything outside of that, such as vanilla property, buy to let, renovating housing  or niches areas, such as hedge funds, commodities, property backed structures and debt financing, all fall under the umbrella term of alternative investing. “

But while this term covers a multitude of instruments, the name has been tarnished on occasion.

But there are warning signs that investors should look out for. There is something to be said for the cliché ‘if it’s too good to be true, it probably is’.  That’s not to say good returns aren’t achievable, after all that is how banks make their money when they lend to developers, but there are some simple rules of thumb you can apply.

“We’re responsible introducers and no client sends any funds directly to” said Mr O’Neill. “We introduce people to instruments they can invest in. And there are three things people have to decide before they go ahead.”

Of course, every investment is a trade-off between risk and reward. But Dean thinks that, after the credit crunch, banks have become overly risk adverse.

Founded three years ago, Hunter Jones introduces investors to innovative property opportunities.

http://www.hjinvest.com