Alternative Investment Platforms: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Helios P2P
3 min readMay 23, 2021
Alternative Investments — Photo — Courtesy : www.pexels.com

As the COVID 19 pandemic rages on the struggle to stabilize your personal finances is crucial for the average investor. However, within this context the traditional investment methods would prove obsolete as the crippled economy reels back and forth as people struggle to get by their day to day lives. Prominent examples would be the stock exchange and fixed deposits as in the context of Sri Lanka, there has been reported of lower interest rates and lower yields dating back as far as the start of the pandemic which continued all through the beginning of 2021. Due to this fact many investors tend to turn to other investment methods either to adapt to the current situation or expand their investment portfolio.

There are many platforms that offer alternative investment methods. Mainly these would consist of business investing, peer-to-peer lending, hedge funds, private equity and alternative currencies. On a more learning perspective, delving into these kinds of investment would definitely prove a rather valuable learning experience for newer investors and looking to expand their investment portfolios. These investments also offer higher returns for investors. Therefore, if you are a risk savvy investor, these platforms would prove incredibly rewarding as you would be able to yield higher returns specially if you are smart enough to exploit and take advantage of compounding interest. In the modern times, the world has seen embracing alternative investment platforms because of there flexibility and high yields. For instance crypto currency has seen a massive rise in popularity in the recent months as major companies such as tesla and cities like Miami Florida have started integrating cryptocurrencies into day-to-day spending.

As these alternative investment platforms possess a higher return, they also come with higher risk as well. Also, some assets tend to be regulated to a very small degree. For instance, of you buy cryptocurrency, which is a heavily unregulated and decentralized that in the event of theft it can be unrecoverable. There is also the liquidity problem. Unlike traditional investments, alternative investments cannot be easily converted to cash. These types of investments can also be very complex to get into/understand. Due to high volatility of some investments, it can be difficult to understand the trends like when it comes to startups for small to medium businesses as their progress can be affected with different aspects of the economy. These investments are also known to be difficult to value. This means that the more difficult it is to price these assets and thus price transparency is lost.

When investing in alternative investment sources, it is vital to build continuous awareness of your financial health as it could be damaging to your personal finances if you are dependent on such investment sources. It is also important to focus on your investment goals. Are you looking for passive income? Long term appreciation? Or are you looking for tax advantages? As such the high returns could have a chance to sway a particular investor on different objectives. The high risk associated with alternative investments, would also raises the question of risk tolerance. Therefore it is paramount for investors both veteran and novice, to have a good understanding of how much risk you can bear before investing.

Helios P2P as an Alternative Investment Platform

As the first peer-to-peer lending platform in Sri Lanka, Helios P2P offers attractive interest rates from 15% to 30% per annum. This enables investors to pick and choose investments as per their risk preference and transfer funds with just a click of a button. The implemented auto debit feature allows monthly returns to be credited to the investors’ current accounts whilst navigating through the offered value-added services absolutely free with no hidden costs. So register as an investor today on Helios P2P and gain access to alternative investing via digital lending at www.heliosp2p.com.

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