Let’s talk about Alternatives! Asset Class Total Returns 
The past year has been historically poor for both equity and fixed income returns. As a result, alternative assets have garnered a lot of attention for their strong relative returns.
Many of the major alternative asset classes have had either positive returns, or less negative returns, than equity and fixed income.
However, if you look over a longer time horizon, the alternative asset classes have struggled to provide positive returns. Most have long-term annual returns in the low single digits.
Source: Helios Quantitative Research, Bloomberg