A constant rule that keeps coming up in the Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst (CAIA) exams is that alternative investments tend to possess an illiquidity premium. I guess that applies, in scientific terms, to everything else except to wine as an investment class. And what’s more, even your investment loses all of its value, you can still drink it and convince yourself it is indeed worth its original value. How’s that for principal protection!
Anyway, it has been a long slog over the past year and a half doing the CAIA exam with no finance background and scrapping through mathematics in my school days. A shout out to my mentor who encouraged me in what he called “a most worthwhile investment”, “just as easy as CFA lah” and “if it ain’t painful, then it ain’t worth doing”.
It was painful.
And worth it.
