These are investments which directly control nonfinancial assets and represent actual rights to consumption. Within real assets are included real estate, infrastructure, natural resources, commodities, and intangible assets.

Pooled investment vehicles that can invest in a wide variety of products, including derivatives, foreign exchange, and publicly traded securities. Their main features are:

• Most hedge funds are not widely available to the public directly.
• They are extremely diverse in structure, employing a great variety of investment stra-tegies.
• They  may concentrate their investments, employ leverage, or engage in other strate-gies that may offer potential for higher returns but may also pose additional volatility or risk.
• Their regulation varies widely around the world; in several key jurisdictions (including the United States) such funds are relatively lightly regulated.

Includes debt and equity securities which are not publicly traded. 

Investors may invest in: 

• Venture capital : Senior equity financing for small, high-risk start-up companies unable to obtain public equity.
• Leverage Buyouts : Funds that privatize a public company by purchasing its equity using a large amount of debt.
• Mezzanine debt : Privacy held convertible debt, debt with equity options or warrants, and preferred stock
• Distressed debt : Debt issued by companies in, or about to enter, bankruptcy.

They create a specific risk, return, tax, or other profile by segmenting the cash flows of traditional investments or linking the returns to one or more market value.