On Wednesday in “The Bernie Madoff Market,” we described how 2017 was so unusual, the gains so predictable, the consistency so implausible, that if global equities were a fund, regulators would suspect it might be a ponzi scheme.
That assessment was inspired by the following quote from SocGen’s Andrew Lapthorne:
Not only did global equity markets perform well during 2017 (MSCI World delivered a total return of 20.1%), but they did so with such low volatility and consistency that if this were a fund, it would perhaps merit a visit from the authorities to check exactly what you were up to!
Exactly. So if you’re in an index fund, you now know what it feels like to produce the kind predictably stable and suspiciously stellar results that would raise eyebrows among regulators in normal market conditions.
But these markets are anything but normal as detailed hilariously and extensively in “The Finance 2017 Time Capsule Is Something We Should Bury Deep.”
Well with all of that in mind, we thought we’d take a moment to bask in the glow of the following simple chart out today from Goldman which depicts the extent to which (almost) all asset classes appreciated in 2017:
“S&P 500 total return in 2017 equaled 22%, including dividends, Information Technology was the market leader, returning 39%, while Energy (-1%) and Telecom (-1%) were the only sectors to post negative returns, Russell 1000 Growth outperformed Russell 1000 Value by 17 pp in 2017 (28% vs. 11%), Ten-year U.S. Treasuries returned 3%, Brent Crude Oil price rose 18%, while gold climbed 14%,” Goldman marvels.
And you know what they say about “what goes up”: it never – ever – comes down.
