I’ve recently added a new chapter to my long-running demographics journal, which I will present in more detail later this month. Before I get to that, I thought that I would have a look at my own financial performance in 2021. In preview, I did ok, but not as well as the market. My portfolio, split across two accounts at AJ Bell and Nordea, returned 6.6% in 2021, when adjusted for a significant zero-return cash position, and around 10% on its own. I am embarrassed to say that I dropped the ball on the month-to-date PnL calculations throughout the year to a larger extent than usual, so these numbers are a bit a uncertain. They are, in any case, far from the show-stopping returns of the MSCI World equity, index at just over 21%, let alone the performance of the mighty S&P 500, at 27%. My first two charts plot the top and bottom 10 performers, which is as good a basis as any to talk about markets.
Read MoreIt's never easy when bonds and stocks decline at the same time, but despite the much-publicised death of the "risk parity" strategy, I don't think the past few weeks' price action qualifies as decisive evidence. After all, the S&P 500 is down a mere 0.6% from its peak in the beginning of June, while US 10-year futures are off only 1.5%. In writing this, though, I remember that many punters in this business use leverage. This acts as an accelerant not only for the volatility of their PnLs, but also for the speed with which a meme can take hold in the peanut gallery. I sympathise with the plight of bond traders in Europe where the dislocation in yields has been particularly nasty. When yields are near zero, or even negative, the relationship between small changes in yield and prices can be brutal. This is even acuter in Japan, where the BOJ might soon have to actually defend that 0% target on the 10-year yield, to avoid an accident in the domestic asset management industry. In the U.S., the 10-year yields has been altogether less dramatic, but big enough to raise questions about whether we have made a switch from a flattener to a steepener.
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