For the vast majority of people, building a portfolio that’s primarily made up of large-cap U.S. stocks and bonds -- and gradually increasing the percentage of your investments that are in bonds as you near retirement -- is a tried-and-true strategy that delivers the best long-term returns during your working years while protecting your nest egg when you leave the workforce.
But that doesn’t mean other alternatives to the traditional large equity and stable fixed-income mix aren’t worth considering.
The reality is, it’s only been in recent years that the average investor has had access to alternative investments in the form of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. While there are plenty of alternative ETFs most retail investors should avoid, such as triple-leveraged inverse volatility strategies and most commodity futures (because it takes pretty specialized knowledge to invest in these areas with any success), ETFs that give investors concentrated exposure to certain industries or assets can help deliver better returns.
Let’s take a closer look at 10 alternative ETFs that could be a perfect way to round out your portfolio, so long as you invest within your risk tolerance for potential losses
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