另类投资是馅饼还是陷阱？（节选）

    但如今，投资市场正在经历一场广泛而深远的变化。很多投资者先是饱受互联网泡沫破裂之苦，然后又是金融危机重击，发誓再也不入股市投资。说他们再也不信赖华尔街或金融机构，还算是轻的。有一小部分（但不容忽视的）投资者认为，这个体系存在非法操纵现象。

    正如茶党(Tea Party)的诞生象征、推动了对现有政治权力结构的逆袭，投资世界也出现了逆袭，但并没有茶党这样的一个派别可以用来命名这个过程，或者使它能够上升到国家层面的重要地位。投资界的这一逆袭表现为一些投资者对共同基金、股票和债券丧失信心，正在缓慢但难以阻挡的撤离——将资金撤出他们一直被建议投资的主流机构，转向通常所谓的另类投资之中。此类投资选择广泛，包括止赎屋、个人按揭贷款、本票、税务留置权证书、外汇基金、私人合伙权益、贵金属交易以及保单贴现投资（收购他人寿险保单，希望在被保险人身故后投资人能获得收益）。

    这个广阔投资领域的增长不可否认，但尚未有行业团体汇总得出这类资产的数据。“数据呈爆炸式增长，”美国证券交易委员会（Securities and Exchange Commission）投资教育和宣传总监罗莉·肖克表示。自主个人退休账户（IRA）的资产已大幅增长；此类账户比传统IRA的规定宽松，常常被用于持有另类投资。据美国证券交易委员会估计，全部IRA资产约有2%（约1,020亿美元）目前隶属于自主IRA中。

    这类投资在投资界被称为“越野驾驶”，给人一种解放和自由的感觉。同时，倡导者称，这些投资比传统市场更赚钱。这里没有大量的限速标识——而且几乎也没有警察。而这是一个问题。很多另类投资不受旨在保护股票和共同基金投资者的种种监管条例约束。兜售此类投资机会的人很少有法律义务（或者干脆没有）披露任何风险信息。

    新一波投资浪潮和缺少保护机制不可避免地将出现违规现象。“我们看到，欺诈行为正在转移阵地，”美国联邦调查局（FBI）经济犯罪部门负责人詹姆斯·巴纳克说。“过去是依托于股票和其他证券，如今正在转到另类投资和商品市场。我们必然将看到这类投资欺诈行为的上升。”

    美国证券交易委员会和美国证券监管机构将它视为一项足够严峻的威胁，2011年他们发出了一项特别警告称，“针对自主IRA的投资欺诈报告或投诉最近呈现增长趋势。”

    译者：杨智

    But there's a profound change afoot today. Many investors, traumatized first by the dotcom bust, then again by the financial crisis, have vowed never to return to the stock markets. To say they no longer trust Wall Street or the financial establishment would be an understatement. A small but significant minority believe the system is rigged.

    Just as the birth of the Tea Party embodied and propelled a revolt against the political establishment, there's been a simultaneous investing revolt -- without a party to name it or lift it to national prominence. The revolt can be seen in the slow but seemingly inexorable exodus by some frustrated investors out of mutual funds, stocks, and bonds -- out of every mainstream institution responsible they have been counseled to put their faith in -- and into what are often called alternative investments. These include a broad array of choices: foreclosed homes, personal mortgage loans, promissory notes, tax-lien certificates, foreign-exchange funds, private partnership interests, precious-metals trading pools, and so-called viatical settlements (other people's life insurance policies acquired in the hopes that the insured will depart quickly so that the investor can cash in).

    The growth in this broad category of investing is undeniable, though there's no trade group that consolidates the statistics for such disparate assets. "The numbers are exploding," says Lori Schock, director of the office of investor education and advocacy at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Assets in so-called self-directed IRAs, which have looser rules than traditional IRAs and are often used to hold alternative investments, have swelled. According to an SEC estimate, about 2% of all IRA assets -- some $102 billion -- is now in self-directed IRAs.

    Driving off-road, in investing terms, can feel liberating, and advocates say it's more profitable than traditional markets. There aren't a lot of speed limits -- and almost no cops around. And that's a problem. Many alternative investments aren't governed by the regulations intended to protect investors in stocks and mutual funds. A person peddling such an opportunity may have little or no legal obligation to disclose anything about its dangers.

    A wave of new investment combined with few protections inevitably means one thing: misbehavior. "We're seeing a transition of the frauds these days," says James Barnacle, chief of the FBI's economic crimes unit. "They had been based on equities and other securities before. Now they're going to alternative investments and commodities markets. We're definitely seeing an increase in these investment frauds."

    The SEC and state securities regulators view it as a grave enough concern that, in 2011, they issued a special alert noting a "recent increase in reports or complaints of fraudulent investment schemes that utilized a self-directed IRA as a key feature."