Alternative Investments

John Maynard Keynes once famously called gold the "barbarous relic," suggesting that its usefulness and, hence, it's value, is antiquated. So the question really is, or should be, is gold useful today? If so, what is its value? And how much should you pay for it?

In a poll conducted earlier this week, we asked readers whether the state of the global economy warrants the purchase of gold or gold stocks. It looks like professional investors are split right down the middle.

Chris Douvos of Venture Investment Associates speaks about the evolution of the venture capital industry.

Jason Voss, CFA, provides a summary of the major research about lying and deceit behaviors, including a brief overview of dozens of research papers.

The author and quant investor discusses his latest book, Models.Behaving.Badly; the origin and application of "The Financial Modelers' Manifesto," which he cowrote with Paul Wilmott; and the limits of quantitative finance.

Why do so many veteran investors express such vehement disdain toward gold? Why are others so bullish on it? Given its deeply routed mystique, gold can exert a strong emotional pull on investors.

The hurdles for the Korean hedge fund industry may appear daunting, but Korea has an enviable track record when it comes to building new industries.

Despite the global financial crisis, Korea has shown positive economic growth. This growth and stability, however, is just a backdrop to some more interesting developments in its financial services sector.

In part two of this discussion, Kevin Harney discusses the effects of the critical assumptions in finance and what can be done differently.

Finance rests upon several critical assumptions that have logical holes. Among the assumptions are: Brownian motion and normally distributed outcomes. Here is a discussion of some of the effects caused by these assumptions.