An Unconventional Approach to Diversification

Diversification, diversification, diversification. We hear it all the time - the importance of spreading your investments across different assets, sectors and geographies.

But what if I told you that diversification may not always be the best strategy? That's right, folks, it's time to throw out the traditional investment rulebook and embrace the unconventional.

Here are a few examples where diversification didn't help out as expected:

The 2008 Financial Crisis: A Diversification Disaster

The 2008 financial crisis serves as a prime example of why diversification may not always be the best strategy. Many investors had diversified their portfolios across different types of assets, such as stocks, bonds, and real estate.

However, during the crisis, these assets all lost value simultaneously. Diversification didn't provide the expected protection for many investors, and the portfolio diversification strategy turned out to be a failure.

The Dot-com Bubble: Diversification Did Not Save The Day

Another prominent example of diversification's failure is the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. Investors who had diversified their portfolios across different technology stocks still lost a lot of money when the bubble burst.

Even though they had spread their risk across different companies, they were all in the same sector and were affected by the same market forces. So, diversifying across different tech companies did not save them from the market crash.

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Real Estate: The Diversification Dilemma

Real estate investors often diversify their portfolio by buying properties in different locations, but what happens when a housing market collapses in one of those areas? It can drag down the value of the whole portfolio.

This is the diversification dilemma, spreading your investments too thin across different geographies might not always be the best strategy.

Bringing an example close to home is crypto investments. I can diversify by investing in different cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Hive etc. But what happens when the crypto market goes down? 99.99% of my portfolio goes down with it because they're all tied to the same market.

The Solution: Diversify intelligently

So, what's the solution? Instead of diversifying for the sake of diversifying, investors should focus on diversifying intelligently. This means putting your money into assets and sectors that have low correlation with each other.

For instance, investing in both stocks and precious metals, or in real estate and commodities. This way, if one market collapses, the other may be less affected, and thus, provide balance to the portfolio.

A Practical Example

One unconventional and practical example of this is investing in both a farm and a tech startup. While both investments may seem vastly different on the surface, they both have low correlation with each other.

If one goes south, the other can help balance out the portfolio. Plus, you get the added bonus of being able to tell your friends you're a farmer AND a venture capitalist. How cool is that?

Final Thoughts

Don't get me wrong, diversification is a good thing, but it's not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Instead of spreading your money thin across different assets, focus on putting your money into assets that have low correlation with each other.

And remember, if you're going to put all your eggs in one basket, make sure it's a basket you really like. After all, you don't want to end up with a basket of rotten eggs (even if it's temporarily).