We now have data indicating the best and worst investments of twenty fifteen. Let’s begin with currencies. Those of you who though that the Azerbaijani Manat would rise were way off. That currency fell about fifty percent to a twenty year low after the central bank there relinquished control of its exchange rate.
By contrast, those of you who bet of the Somali Shilling were big winners. That currency was up by nearly twenty percent. In terms of stocks, the best place to have put your money was in Jamaica. As reported by Bloomberg, the island nation’s index rose by more than eighty percent last year. Things were not nearly as good in the Ukraine.
The Ukrainian equities index fell by about sixty percent. Ukrainian bonds didn’t fare particularly well, but the performance of Brazilian bonds was even worse in many cases. Many of the worst investments were in commodities, including heating oil which was off by about forty percent last year. In the metals category, platinum and palladium were both down by approximately thirty percent.
Gold performed relatively well by falling by only ten percent. Coffee generated a twenty five percent loss last year, but cotton and sugar generated positive returns. The basic message – invest in things that one can reasonably understand.
