Guides · free to read
How alternative markets actually work
Primers and how-tos for the asset classes that don’t show up on a 401(k) statement. Written the way the newsletter is — numbers over adjectives, sources over opinions. No email required.
Start with The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Investing, then the flagship on each market hub.
- Real Estate
Buying a Second Home Abroad
Residency programmes close, entry costs run 5% to 15%, and a 1031 exchange cannot cross the border.
49 min read
- Collector Cars
Buying Cars at Auction
The platforms cap the buyer’s fee and the houses charge a percentage: $10,500 apart on a $150,000 car.
36 min read
- Farmland
Buying Farmland Directly
Owning an acre outright is a small business: soil, a tenant, a loan and a tax return.
48 min read
- Fine Art
How Art Auctions Work
The hammer is art’s only public price, and neither the buyer paid it nor the seller received it.
39 min read
- Fine Art
Investing in Art Through Fractional Shares and Funds
Fractional platforms and art funds sell access to blue-chip art at fees larger than art’s real return.
42 min read
- NFTs
Investing in Bitcoin Ordinals
Ordinals put NFTs on Bitcoin without changing Bitcoin; the market that followed shrank to a handful of collections.
39 min read
- Collector Cars
Investing in Blue-Chip Ferraris and Porsches
A 250 GTO made $51.7 million, an Enzo $17.9 million; the file, not the paint, set both prices.
41 min read
- Fine Wine
Investing in Bordeaux
The world’s most liquid wine, whose futures system has lost buyers money on most vintages since 2016.
37 min read
- Fine Wine
Investing in Burgundy and Champagne
Burgundy and Champagne are allocation markets where access, not analysis, sets the return.
40 min read
- NFTs
Investing in CryptoPunks
Ten thousand tokens, nine Aliens, a 2017 contract that charges no fee: what a Punk costs to own.
40 min read
- Fine Art
Investing in Emerging Artists
Buying young artists is venture capital without the diversification, and most primary purchases never resell above cost.
41 min read
- Farmland
Investing in Farmland Through REITs and Funds
Two listed REITs, a few institutional funds and the platforms are the only farmland most outsiders can buy.
44 min read
- NFTs
Investing in Generative Art
Algorithmic works minted on-chain are the NFT segment art institutions kept: a short canon, priced in ether.
47 min read
- Luxury Goods
Investing in Independent Watchmakers
A dozen makers produce perhaps two thousand watches a year between them; access, not money, sets the price.
41 min read
- Private Credit
Investing in Interval Funds and Non-Traded BDCs
A fund promising quarterly liquidity on loans that have none pays for the promise with a 5% door.
43 min read
- Private Credit
Investing in Litigation Finance
Funders quote multiples on concluded cases; the years each case takes, and the fee stack, set your return.
46 min read
- Collector Cars
Investing in Modern Limited-Production Cars
Delivery mileage is the scarce attribute, and its premium has not been tested by a full cycle.
39 min read
- Private Credit
Investing in Music Royalties
A music catalogue trades at a multiple of net publisher share, and that multiple sets the buyer’s return.
47 min read
- Real Estate
Investing in Opportunity Zones
Made permanent in 2025, the incentive defers a gain for five years and then exempts the appreciation.
46 min read
- Private Credit
Investing in Pre-IPO Shares
Outsiders rarely buy the stock itself; they buy a fund interest priced above the last trade, and wait.
46 min read
- Fine Art
Investing in Prints and Editions
Editions are the liquid, affordable end of fine art; edition size, signature and condition set the price.
37 min read
- Precious Metals
Investing in Rare Coins
Grade sets the price, populations set the risk, and the auction round trip takes about 26%.
50 min read
- Luxury Goods
Investing in Signed and Vintage Jewellery
The name stamped inside a bracelet is now worth more than the diamonds set into it.
47 min read
- Luxury Goods
Investing in Sneakers
Sneaker resale premiums collapsed after 2021; a few hundred colourways still clear retail, and almost nothing else does.
38 min read
- Farmland
Investing in Timberland
Timberland’s real returns have fallen in each of the last three decades while institutional money kept arriving.
47 min read
- NFTs
Investing in Tokenized Real-World Assets
A token is a claim on something off the chain, worth exactly what redeeming it is worth.
43 min read
- Farmland
Investing in Water Rights
Water is priced, but almost never purchasable: the tradeable asset is the right to change its use.
56 min read
- Fine Wine
Investing in Whisky Casks
Casks are sold by unregulated brokers at prices no public market quotes; bottles have a real auction record.
47 min read
- Fine Wine
Investing in Wine Through Platforms and Funds
Managed wine platforms charge 2–3% a year on an asset that has returned about 5% before costs.
42 min read
- Sports Cards & Trading Cards
Card Grading Explained
The digit on the label sets the price, and five private companies decide what that digit is.
42 min read
- Real Estate
Investing in 1031 Exchanges
Section 1031 defers real-estate gains indefinitely; the DST industry sells access at loads that can top 15%.
60 min read
- Crypto
Investing in Bitcoin
A fixed-supply asset that has fallen 50% or more five times, the fifth with the ETFs in place.
40 min read
- Crypto
Investing in Crypto Through ETFs and Treasury Companies
Seven wrappers, one coin: since November 2024 bitcoin lost 20% and Strategy’s stock lost 75%.
37 min read
- Crypto
Investing in Ethereum
Ether pays a staking yield of about 2.6% and has lost to bitcoin every calendar year since 2022.
39 min read
- Precious Metals
Investing in Gold
Central banks built the floor, Western funds built the spike, and the wrapper decides your tax rate.
42 min read
- Precious Metals
Investing in Gold Miners and Royalty Companies
Miners are gold with a cost curve, royalties are gold without one, and both are taxed as stocks.
39 min read
- Luxury Goods
Investing in Hermès
Birkins resell above retail because Hermès rations them; the arithmetic works only at the boutique price.
37 min read
- Private Credit
Investing in Listed BDCs
A listed BDC marks its own loans; the share price is the market’s daily audit of those marks.
38 min read
- Sports Cards & Trading Cards
Investing in Magic: The Gathering
The only card game whose maker promised never to reprint 572 cards; one sold for $3 million.
44 min read
- Sports Cards & Trading Cards
Investing in Modern Basketball and Football Cards
One company prints every licensed NBA and NFL card; a 2019 rookie’s PSA 10 fell more than 80%.
38 min read
- Real Estate
Investing in Net-Lease Commercial Property
A single-tenant building leased to one company pays a cap rate; the tenant’s credit is the asset.
43 min read
- Precious Metals
Investing in Platinum and Palladium
Priced by the car fleet, mined mostly in South Africa and Russia, and dearer to own than gold.
42 min read
- Sports Cards & Trading Cards
Investing in Pokémon and Trading Card Games
One card sold for $16.5 million. The company printed ten billion more.
61 min read
- Real Estate
Investing in Real Estate Syndications and Private REITs
Syndications pay the sponsor at entry and investors at exit; non-traded REITs decide when exits open.
43 min read
- Luxury Goods
Investing in Rolex
A steel Daytona: $16,900 at the dealer, $34,800 on the street; the gap is the whole market.
35 min read
- Sports Cards & Trading Cards
Investing in Sealed Product
A sealed 1986-87 Fleer case sold for $1.79 million; a modern box must rise 27% to break even.
40 min read
- Real Estate
Investing in Short-Term Rentals
Supply grew 22% in 2022 and revenue per listing fell; the trade now lives on tax treatment.
38 min read
- Precious Metals
Investing in Silver
Half industrial, half monetary: why silver ran through $100, halved by July, and what owning it costs.
39 min read
- Crypto
Investing in Solana and Altcoins
Of the 99 largest coins below bitcoin at the 2021 peak, five were worth more by May 2026.
41 min read
- Crypto
Investing in Stablecoins and On-Chain Yield
Fully reserved coins have kept their dollar; yields above the bill rate are where holders have lost money.
40 min read
- Sports Cards & Trading Cards
Investing in Vintage Baseball Cards
A T206 Wagner made $5.856 million in August 2026; the vintage category index rose 14% in 2025.
37 min read
- Luxury Goods
Investing in Luxury Watches
A $35,000 steel watch sold for $470,000.
33 min read
- How-To
How to Buy Pre-IPO Shares
The biggest companies in the world now stay private for years. Here's how outside money actually gets in before the IPO — and the catches that eat the return.
10 min read
- Primer
What Are Alternative Investments, Really?
A working definition that goes beyond 'anything that isn't a stock or a bond' — and why the category is eating the portfolio.
10 min read