Values-based investors (like other investors) have been
advised to consider alternative investments as a source of uncorrelated returns,
but we lack a framework within which to assess the "values" content of such
investments. The types of relationships that may exist between an investor, the
instrument, and related parties are analyzed. Using this analysis, a preliminary
framework is constructed to assess and rank the ethical content of traditional
and nontraditional investments in the form of an ethical scoring
matrix.