Matthew Richards at FT.com encourages investors to think outside the box when trying to figure out how to diversify their portfolios.

Ancient Greek coins, rare stamps and fine Bordeaux wine from Chateau Latour – you might expect these luxuries to be the kind of thing wealthy investors spend some of their profits on. But they can also be investments in their own right, and specialist funds make them available to retail investors of more modest means.

He however cautions that these kinds of investments involve a high level of risk and may have low levels of liquidity. They may however be profitable for long-term investors as they have low correlations with mainstream stocks.

Some of the funds he considers worth looking at are:

Vietnam Opportunity Fund
This fund is open to investors who have at least a few hundred dollars to invest. This trusn has performed strongly due to the boom in the Vietnamese economy.

Aberdeen New Thai investment trust
This trust focuses singularly on Thailand and over the past five years its price has more than doubled.

Gartmore Irish Growth trust
The share price of this trust has risen dramatically over the past five years.

New Zealand investment trust
The price has doubled over the past three years

Oyster Oncology fund
This is a UK fund which is available to investors throug a private banker. It focuses on finding treatments for cancer.

Impax Environmental Markets trust
This trust specializes in renewable energy.

Deva 80 Alfa fund
This fund was launched four months ago and uses derivatives to bet that the volatility of the stock market will lower than what the market predicts.

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