What alternative investments are, the major categories including private equity, hedge funds, commodities, and cryptocurrency, their risk and return characteristics, and how individual investors can access them.
The structural differences between mutual funds and ETFs, how they differ in trading, tax efficiency, minimum investments, and costs, and how to choose between them for your specific investment situation.
The practical difference between owning individual bonds and bond funds, when each approach makes sense, how interest rate risk is handled differently in each, and what most individual investors should choose.
How to analyze individual REITs beyond the dividend yield — funds from operations, balance sheet quality, occupancy rates, lease structures, and the sector-specific metrics that separate good REITs from mediocre ones.