‘Alternatives’ Soon To Become ‘Conventionals’

As I so often do, I was reading the annual report of a large public pension fund early this morning (which, if anything, shows you that it ain’t all glitz and glamour down on the Avenue of Giants). Anyway, I was specifically reading the新发布的2012年度报告for the $70 billion New Jersey State Investment Council. It’s an interesting and short report, which I recommend you read.

In particular, I was intrigued to see the chart below, which documents the increasing importance of alternative assets for this fund... and the rapid nature of this rise to prominence. The portfolio was only launched in 2006 and it looks to make up almost 20% of the fund's AUM today. And, moreover, if you were to continue plotting this chart out until 2018 or so, I’d wager that 'alternatives' would be the single biggest asset class that this pension fund holds.

In other words, it won't be long until 'alternatives' turns into the most conventional of all the asset classes. Noodle on that one for a bit...