The share of high net worth North American investors ranking public equities as their preferred investment rose from 31 per cent in 2011 to 39 per cent this year, according to Tiger 21's Member Favorites Survey.

The findings represent the third consecutive year that equity-themed investments have come out as the members’ favorite. However, allocations to various vehicles within this space have shifted from prior years, Tiger 21 noted. For example, individual stocks fell in popularity while ETFs gained.

Hedge funds claimed second place, as voted for by 19 per cent. After hedge funds, 15 per cent opted for private equity as their favorite investment, while 11 per cent chose real estate, tailed by fixed income (8 per cent), cash and cash equivalents (4 per cent) and commodities (down from 7 per cent to 3 per cent). For commodities, gold and silver investments were of the most interest – mainly through funds, the group noted, although a few members mentioned physical exposure.  

Allocations to private equity among Tiger 21 members' portfolios reached a historic high, having jumped from 10 to 15 per cent. "Many members favor direct investments in private companies over investing in funds, and this seems to be a growing trend," the group said.

Members listing investments in exchange-traded funds/index funds as favorites saw this category increase four percentage points to reach 23 per cent this year. Specifically, SPDR S&P 500 was the second most popular equity pick for 2012, along with five other ETFs in the top 20 equity picks overall. Just over a fifth (21 per cent) cited hedge funds as their preferred method for gaining exposure to equity-themed strategies.  

“The generally positive stock market performance over the past year may be partly responsible for the increase in the percentage of respondents who said public equities were their favorite investment in the past year," said Michael Sonnenfeldt, founder and chairman of TIGER 21. "Yet, more telling might be the types of equities and the method of investing that members have chosen," he added.  

In other findings, 19 per cent of members selected hedge funds as one of their favorite investments, but when broken down by specific investment strategy, equity long/short funds comprised 35 per cent of hedge funds mentioned by members. At 18 per cent, event-driven funds followed, with macro and multi-strategy funds each garnering 15 per cent, and relative value and fund of funds each with 9 per cent.