New Delhi, June 19 -- Alternative investments, which fall outside traditional assets like stocks, bonds, and cash, have grown in popularity among individual investors over the past two decades. These assets, which were once accessible only to a small subset of investors, have now entered the mainstream, first with choices directed at institutional investors, but more recently, in offerings for individual investors.

They span a wide range-private equity, hedge funds, real estate, cryptocurrencies, commodities, and collectibles-and are often seen as offering better risk-return trade-offs, with the potential for higher returns at a given level of risk.

However, NYU professor and valuation expert Aswath Damodaran, in his latest blog post, u...