Bonds, usually the dependable ballast to stocks, and a perceived safe investment, also fell sharply. The Bloomberg US Aggregate and Bloomberg Global Aggregate indices fell 13% and 16% respectively, the worst declines since 1978 (see Chart 1). Meanwhile, far from being the touted hedge against traditional asset price movements, the market cap for cryptocurrencies fell from a peak of US$3 trillion in November 2021 to less than US$800 billion by end-2022. The collapse is marked by several high-profile crypto asset failures, including the Terra stablecoin death spiral and bankruptcy of one of the largest crypto exchanges, FTX.
First of all, we wish all our readers a Happy New Year 2023. The start of a new year is usually a time for reflection, on events that transpired over the past year, and the making of new resolutions to do better in the year ahead.
For the majority of investors, the year 2022 was a bruising one, whether one is invested in traditional stocks and bonds or funky assets such as cryptocurrencies and meme stocks. A case in point: US stocks alone lost some US$12 trillion in market cap, the worst drop since 2001, with the S&P 500 index down by more than 19%. Growth, and in particular technology, stocks fared the worst — the Nasdaq Composite was down 33% for the year.
