[A] portfolio is the only asset I know of that is uninsured.
Actually, "portfolio insurance" did exist, and still does in some forms, though scarcely by that name. It was widely blamed (legitimately or not) as an aggrevating factor during the October 1987 stock market crash. This was/is, of course, not insurance in the sense of policies, premiums, and actuarial determinations, but rather a form of financial engineering involving concepts borrowed from physics and economics.
At that time, portfolio insurance was pioneered by a firm called LOR and provided to pension funds, money managers, college endowments, and other institutional entities. Interestingly, several of the main theories underlying LOR's portfolio insurance trades (Black-Scholes, etc.) were the academic product of several individuals who, roughly ten years later, were principals of the now-defunct hedge fund Long Term Capital Management.
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