How can risk be reduced in real estate investments? It’s simple — by practicing diversification. Instead of investing in a single property with concentration risk, prudence dictates investing in a number of properties with different investment and risk parameters.

The Goldman Sachs Group, undaunted by the sell-off in raw materials, is bullish on commodities and is forecasting returns of about 17 percent in the coming months.

Eight sponsor companies raised about $401 million for use within various nontraded energy programs, during 2018. That represents a year-over-year increase of 21.5 percent from $330 million raised by the sector in 2017, a commendable result considering the oil market pricing volatility observed in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The median price of a U.S. single-family home has risen just over 40 percent since the last housing-market crash. While newspaper headlines may put readers on edge, an analysis of market conditions indicates a gradual slowdown — not a bursting bubble — in most regions. That’s largely because inventories remain tight and future demand looks healthy. Some market observers worry that recent declines in new and existing home sales are a possible warning of an impending crash. But a deep dive into the market’s fundamentals to better understand the risks shows the recent slump in home sales is due to lower housing affordability.

The growth of the REIT structure globally presents both opportunities and challenges to investors and emerging REITs. Let’s take a look at the major REIT markets around the world, as well as the potential emergence of India’s first REIT.

Every year I seek help from many sources in preparing my annual 10 surprises list. My colleague Joe Zidle played an important role in this year’s Surprises and will be a major collaborator on the Surprises going forward. George Soros reviewed my ideas as he has since they began back in the 1980s. Gideon Rose and Dan Kurtz-Phelan of the Council on Foreign Relations gave me their thoughts on the geopolitical surprises. My Third Thursday group of former research directors provided their annual observations, and many friends and associates at Blackstone and elsewhere contributed their ideas. In the end, however, the surprises are mine, and I am accountable for the results. Now, here are my 10 surprises for 2019, which I will discuss in an upcoming essay.

First, the good news: Wind and solar power are experiencing rapid growth, and their costs have been plummeting. But here’s the bad news: In general, the sun shines only during the day, and the wind blows at its swiftest during the evening — and there are few places where both happen in abundance and with dependability.

During second quarter 2017, Brian Spinelli and other members of the Halbert Hargrove executive team officially declared the traditional 60/40 portfolio “dead” in their quarterly market view report. The report, specifically titled The Death of 60/40, reasoned that two-dimension stock-and-bond portfolios are not going to deliver the returns required for the firm’s clients to build a retirement-scale garrison of assets, let alone one that serves more ambitious financial goals, such as philanthropic pursuits or paying college tuition for grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Dollar-cost averaging is a strategy recommended by many professional money managers as a means of gradually allocating an investor’s portfolio into risky assets, such as equities, to avoid the perceived risk of investing at the “wrong” time. But do dollar-cost averaging strategies perform better than simple lump-sum investing?

Here are two words that illustrate just how far the legal marijuana market has come in a relatively short period: John Boehner. In April 2018, the Republican and former Speaker of the House joined the advisory board of Acreage Holdings, a company that cultivates, processes and dispenses cannabis in a dozen U.S. states. Boehner — who once said he was “unalterably opposed” to laws that would decriminalize marijuana — now serves on the company’s board of directors, alongside former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld.

A former boss once told me, “People can deal with the truth; what they cannot deal with is uncertainty.” That kind of transparency made for a better workplace. Economic uncertainty isn’t easy to deal with either. Unfortunately, business leaders and investors live professional lives of constant uncertainty — more today than ever. Since the near-cataclysmic global financial crisis ended, there has been more than the usual uncertainty. It isn’t just the knowledge that recessions are inevitable, albeit unpredictable; it’s the specter that something is rotten at the core of our economic system. Perhaps it’s the unremitting growth of public and private debt. Perhaps it is people’s loss of faith in society’s organizing institutions.