The daily letter on alternative markets
There’s more to investing than the stock market.
One five-minute email every morning on the markets the wealthy quietly own: art, wine, cars, cards, metals, farmland, real estate, private credit and crypto. Every figure sourced and dated. Free.
Free · Every morning · Unsubscribe any time
Every alternative market · a live index · a five-minute read
What each issue carries
Six sections. Five minutes. Nothing padded.
Written the way a desk writes for a trader: the number first, the reason second, and the link at the end for anyone who wants the source.
01
The Latest
The overnight moves across every alternative market, in the order they matter.
02
Alt-Verse
The story of the day from outside the stock market, told with the number that makes it matter.
03
Markets at a Glance
Our own composite index and the daily-moving prices, with 24-hour changes. No stale index dressed up as news.
04
The Big Move
The one thing that changed most, and the IA Take on it: a price, a threshold or a date you can hold us to.
05
On The Block
What actually sold at auction, with the comp that says whether the price was high or low.
06
The Odd One
The asset you did not know was an asset. A rare bird, a domain name, a dinosaur.
A real issue
This is what lands in your inbox.
Cream paper, one column, no banner ads between the paragraphs. It reads on a phone at a red light and on a desk with a coffee.
The markets
Eleven markets, three sleeves, one letter.
Cultural Assets
Objects whose value is scarcity plus attention: art, wine, cars, cards, luxury goods and watches, and NFTs.
Fine Art
Spectacular prices, and a real return of about 2.4% a year.
Fine Wine
Supply shrinks every year; three years into a drawdown.
Collector Cars
Records at the top, a real-terms low for the median car.
Sports Cards & Trading Cards
A hobby with an index, a grading oligopoly and a grade cliff.
Luxury Goods
Hermès, a few Chanels and the right steel watches hold value.
NFTs
What survived the fastest asset-class bubble on record.
Hard Assets
Things with weight and acreage: precious metals, farmland and real estate.
Precious Metals
Gold, silver, platinum and palladium after a great bull run.
Farmland
A $3.8T asset class: 9.8% a year since 1992, a first loss in 2024.
Real Estate
The top of the housing market decoupled from interest rates.
Financial Alternatives
Markets built from contracts and code: private credit and crypto.
Private Credit
A $2T asset class behind wrappers less liquid than they look.
Crypto
ETFs, treasuries, a stablecoin law, and a 53% drawdown anyway.
How we write
Numbers over adjectives. Sources over opinions.
I
Every figure sourced and dated
A price without a source and a date is trivia, so it gets cut. When a number is ours, it comes from our own tape, and the tape is public.
II
Every call graded in public
The IA Take is a falsifiable call. Each one is logged on a scorecard and graded when the date comes, right or wrong.
III
No product to sell you
We are a publication, not a platform. A sponsor never sees a piece before it runs, and a paid placement is labelled as one.
Free with your subscription
The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Investing
Fourteen markets, one guide: the four return engines, the honest long-run returns, the 28% collectibles tax and which markets it catches, and the door the wealthy actually use in each one. Sent as a PDF the moment you ask for it.
Send me the guide
The complete guide by email, then the daily letter. Free; unsubscribe any time.
Questions
- What is Invest Alternative?
- A free daily email on the markets that never show up on a 401(k) statement: fine art, wine, collector cars, trading cards, luxury goods, NFTs, precious metals, farmland, real estate, private credit and crypto. Five minutes to read, every morning.
- Is it really free?
- Yes. The letter, the guides, the daily Index and the site are free. If that ever changes for a part of it, the part you signed up for stays free.
- How often will you email me?
- Once a day, in the morning. When you request a guide we send it once. Nothing else, and every email has an unsubscribe link that works immediately.
- Is this investment advice?
- No. Invest Alternative is a publication, not an adviser or a broker. Nothing we publish is a recommendation, and you should consult a licensed professional who knows your situation before acting.
- Who is it for?
- People who already own the ordinary portfolio and want to understand the other one: family-office professionals, advisers, and sophisticated readers who prefer numbers to adjectives.
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