Asset Play
Categories: Managed Funds, Mutual Funds, Investing, Index Funds
It sounds like a term that will get you called into HR for googling it at work. But it's really an "insider" Wall Street-y term. It's an excuse for investing in something that doesn't produce cash.
Feels kind of whispery. A deal. What's an asset play? Buying an NFL team. NFL teams don't produce cash. In fact, most lose cash every year and the owners have to inject more cash into the team. But the asset in owning that franchise had historically gone up each year until the whole concussion-kneeling-boring-games-owner-infighting-and-other-stuff...stuff.
Buying huge blocks of land which barely generate any cash from the cattle-feeding-rental income are asset plays as well. The bet is that well, we're running out of good land, more or less, and the asset will go up in value.
It's a "play" on investing that involves an asset that doesn't really produce much cash, if any...yet costs a serious fortune to buy. Basically, you're hoping for the value of the asset to appreciate before the maintenance costs kill you. You're looking to take advantage of some other asset-play sucker (we mean "savvy investor") down the road to make your profit.
