Much noise has been made about green investments, so-called “ethical investments”. Ethical investments is a moniker attached to investment opportunities that have you plunge your money into companies that operate on a certain moral plane, for instance charities such as Amnesty International or environmental organisations like Greenpeace.
While ethical investments have grown in popularity, and also returns, sometimes in the world of business and investing you have to be ruthless, sometimes the bigger picture is not as important as your own personal canvas, and sometimes that means turning to investment options that might not have the world's best interests at heart.
We are of course talking about un-ethical investments, or sin-stocks as they are sometimes known. There's no shame in putting you and your family’s financial well-being first, so let us take a look at some dark-side investment options that are tipped for big things in 2011.
Cigarettes
Cigarettes, fags these are a few of the names give to one of humanity's oldest vices. Despite the stigma attached to tobacco, there's no denying the fact that it is big, worldwide business. British American Tobacco is a good bet for sin stocks. Even though commentators are currently speculating that smoking could be eradicated sooner rather than later, this has not stopped British American Tobacco from performing well. The FTSE tobacco sector has risen by 310 percent in the last decade, and British American Tobacco is said to be giving investors a net yield of more than 4 percent, which isn't a bad return at all.
Guns
Potentially even more unethical than tobacco is investing into arms. As pessimistic as it may sound the need for weaponry is not going to die out any time soon, if anything it's going to grow. Unfortunately, as a race, humans seem to be hardwired to create conflict and to fight. Pick up a newspaper at any one time and you will no doubt come across a story detailing some sort of terrible battle occurring somewhere. Case in point- Egypt, a country currently gripped by the steely hand of turmoil.
One of the world's biggest arms dealer is BAE Systems, an English company. They are known to have cash reserves of £500 million and give a fantastic income yield of 5 percent to investors.
Gambling
Another one of humanity's big vices is gambling, which of course is intrinsically linked to investing. Both require inputs of money, and, depending how daring you are, both could see you lose that in money in an instant. However, therein lies the thrill, some people crave the excitement of big risks countered by bigger rewards. The place to invest in gambling is Playtech. Playtech does business with other big companies by consulting with regard to online gaming solutions. Playtech holds a big hand in the Alternative Investment Market, and gambling on the whole is becoming more and more accepted throughout the world. Playtech also has money in the bank putting it in a strong position for the future. As online gaming approaches an explosion, Playtech will be at the forefront of any dramatic boost, and so would be a fine choice for investment.