Larry Swedroe

The Way Smart Money Diversifies Risk

On International investments: if you read the book you will see that we don't really consider international equities as alternative asset class. Having said that, we know that most investors, even those that invest internationally, limit the investments to large caps. We show that to get the real benefits of international diversification you should invest in international small, small value and emerging market equities.

On Variable Annuities: we don't call them an asset class (and hedge funds, venture capital and lots of other investments we discuss are not asset classes either). They are however investment vehicles. And the book is about alternative investments. We also show why basically they should be avoided.