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CFA Level 1 Alternative Investments

Master every Alternative Investments learning outcome the CFA Level 1 exam tests — from private capital and real assets to hedge funds and digital assets.

👤 Krawl Edutech🌐 English📚 7 sections

$38

Billed in INR via Razorpay

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⏱8h 58m of lessons ≈ under 2 weeks at 45 min/day, or a focused weekend

What you will learn

✓Describe the defining features and categories of alternative investments and contrast them with traditional asset classes in terms of structure, liquidity, and return characteristics.

✓Compare direct investment, co-investment, and fund investment methods and explain the ownership and compensation structures — including carried interest and hurdle rates — commonly used across alternative investment vehicles

✓Evaluate the performance of alternative investments using appropriate appraisal methods and calculate returns both before and after fees, including the impact of management and performance fee structures

✓Explain the investment characteristics of private equity and private debt, including the stages of private equity financing, the role of leverage, and the diversification benefits that private capital provides to a broader portfolio

✓Analyse the features, investment characteristics, and risk-return profiles of real estate investments, covering both direct ownership and indirect vehicles such as REITs

✓Describe the investment characteristics of infrastructure assets and explain how their cash flow profiles, inflation linkage, and long duration distinguish them from other alternative asset classes

✓Identify the features of natural resource investments — including raw land, timberland, farmland, and commodities — and analyse their sources of return, risk, and diversification potential

✓Explain the investment features of hedge funds, contrast them with other asset classes, and analyse the forms, vehicles, risk sources, and return drivers used across major hedge fund strategies

✓Describe the financial applications of distributed ledger technology and explain the investment features, forms, vehicles, and risk-return characteristics of digital assets as an emerging alternative asset class

✓Integrate knowledge of alternative investments with broader CFA Level 1 portfolio concepts, applying return and risk analysis in the context of diversification, correlation, and asset allocation decisions

Course content

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FREE PREVIEW

Alternative Investment Features & Categories — Private Capital, Real Assets, Hedge Funds

Watch this lesson free — no signup needed.

7 sections · 19 lectures · 8h 58m total length

Alternative investments sit outside the traditional universe of publicly traded stocks, bonds, and cash — and understanding what defines them is the first step to mastering this topic area. This module establishes the foundational architecture of the alternatives landscape: what makes an investment "alternative," how these investments are categorised, and how they are accessed. You will learn the three primary methods through which investors gain exposure — direct investment, co-investment, and fund investment — and understand the trade-offs each involves in terms of control, cost, diversification, and operational complexity. The module then turns to the ownership and compensation structures that are distinctive to alternatives, including the mechanics of management fees, performance fees, carried interest, hurdle rates, and high-water marks. These structural features are not just administrative detail — they directly shape the incentives of managers and the net returns to investors, and the CFA Level 1 exam tests your ability to understand and apply them.

▶Alternative Investment Features & Categories — Private Capital, Real Assets, Hedge FundsPREVIEW27:43

▶Investment Methods: Fund, Co-Investment & Direct20:05

▶Ownership & Compensation Structures27:20

Requirements & what's included

●This course follows the official CFA Level 1 curriculum and covers every learning outcome in the Alternative Investments topic area without exception
●No prior knowledge of alternative investments is required — the course builds from foundational concepts through to the full depth required for the CFA Level 1 exam
●A working understanding of basic investment mathematics — returns, present value, and compounding — will help you engage with the quantitative content on fees and performance appraisal
●The course covers all seven major alternative investment categories tested at CFA Level 1: private equity, private debt, real estate, infrastructure, natural resources, hedge funds, and digital assets
●Worked examples mirror the structure and difficulty of actual CFA Level 1 exam questions, including calculations of management fees, performance fees, carried interest, and pre- and post-fee returns
●Revision notes are structured for active recall and are designed to be your primary study reference in the final weeks before your exam — concise, precise, and mapped directly to CFA Institute learning outcomes
●All video lessons are pre-recorded and available on demand, allowing you to study at your own pace across any device — laptop, tablet, or smartphone
●Captions are 100% human-audited for accuracy, making the course fully accessible to candidates who rely on captions or prefer to read along while watching
●This course is suitable for candidates preparing for any CFA Level 1 exam window — February, May, or August — and for both first-time candidates and those returning after a prior attempt
●Upon completing this course, you will be fully prepared to answer every CFA Level 1 Alternative Investments question — from structural descriptions and qualitative comparisons to quantitative calculations and performance analysis

About this course

CFA Level 1 Alternative Investments

If you are preparing for the CFA Level 1 examination, Alternative Investments is a subject that rewards candidates who take it seriously. It carries direct exam weight, spans a broad and diverse range of asset classes, and tests your ability to move fluently between conceptual understanding and analytical application — across private equity, private debt, real estate, infrastructure, natural resources, hedge funds, and the rapidly evolving world of digital assets.

This course is built exclusively for CFA Level 1 candidates. Every lesson, every worked example, every revision note is written with one objective in mind — to make you exam-ready on Alternative Investments, efficiently and completely.

Whether you are sitting the February, May, or August exam window, whether you are a first-time candidate or returning after a prior attempt, this course covers every learning outcome in the CFA Level 1 Alternative Investments topic area without exception.

What the CFA Level 1 Exam Expects from You in Alternative Investments

The CFA Level 1 exam tests Alternative Investments across a wide spectrum — from the structural mechanics of how alternative investments are owned and compensated, to the performance measurement techniques used to evaluate them, to the risk, return, and diversification characteristics of each major asset class. Candidates are expected to describe, compare, explain, calculate, and analyse — not just recall definitions.

This course is structured to meet exactly that standard. Conceptual clarity comes first. Quantitative fluency follows. And every topic is anchored to the kinds of questions the CFA Level 1 exam actually asks.

How This Course Is Delivered

All lessons are pre-recorded and available on demand, so you study at your own pace without disrupting your work or personal commitments. Each CFA Level 1 topic is built around three pillars:

Video lessons that build genuine understanding of every CFA Level 1 learning outcome from the ground up — covering alternative investment structures, private capital, real assets, hedge funds, and digital assets in full. Worked problem-solving sessions that mirror actual CFA Level 1 exam questions with full step-by-step solutions, including fee calculations, return computations, and performance appraisal. Concise revision notes structured for active recall — exactly what you need in the final weeks before your CFA Level 1 exam date.

The course is delivered entirely in English and follows the official 2026 CFA Level 1 curriculum, covering all readings within Alternative Investments without exception.

Why Krawl Is Different — Technology in the Service of Learning

At Krawl, we believe technology should do more than just deliver content. It should actively make learning better, faster, and more effective for every CFA Level 1 candidate who walks through the door. That belief shapes everything about how this course is built.

Content engineered, not just recorded. Most recorded courses reflect the personal teaching habits of whoever made them — tangents, repetition, uneven pacing, and material that could have been covered in half the time. At Krawl, every lesson goes through a structured curation and production pipeline before it reaches you. Technology helps us strip out the clutter, sequence the concepts intelligently, and pack the most CFA Level 1 learning into the least amount of time. Every minute you spend on this course earns its place. We respect your time because we know how much is riding on your CFA Level 1 result.

Audio built for comprehension, not just playback. Every lesson is recorded and processed using professional-grade audio technology, delivering speech that is clean, consistent, and free of the fatigue that comes from listening to uneven or poorly produced audio for hours at a stretch. Captions are 100% human-audited — not auto-generated and left to chance — so every word on screen matches precisely what is being said. For CFA Level 1 candidates who rely on captions, or simply prefer to read along, there are no gaps, no errors, and no guesswork.

A platform that works wherever you are. CFA Level 1 preparation happens in stolen moments as much as planned study sessions. The Krawl platform is optimised across every device you own. A laptop gives you the fullest experience. A tablet is equally capable for extended study sessions. And when your CFA Level 1 study schedule demands fifteen minutes on a commute or between meetings, the platform runs flawlessly on a smartphone — no compromises on navigation, playback, or readability.

Light on data, heavy on quality. Every video and audio file is compressed using modern encoding technology to the smallest possible size without any sacrifice in quality. Whether you are on a fast home connection or a limited mobile data plan, the course loads quickly and streams without interruption — because every CFA Level 1 candidate deserves the same quality of preparation regardless of where they are studying from.

This is what it means to use technology to advance education. As a genuine commitment to making every aspect of the CFA Level 1 learning experience work for you.