What goes down, must go up — and in the next year, no less. At least, that’s a belief that would justify last year’s standing as the second-best year on record for inflows into stock-focused exchange-traded funds.
But at the risk of sobering any lingering new year revelry, what if 2023 marks a fifth time unlucky and this isn’t yet the bottom?In an interview on the All-in podcast, Tesla founder Elon Musk mused recently about the potential for “mass panic” among investors. He cautioned listeners against using shares as loan collateral in a volatile market and advised keeping cash to hand.
There was a lot of focus last year on the potential for blow-ups in the bond world, either from heavy borrowers collapsing as rates rise, or because some largely overlooked corner unexpectedly gums up the wider system, as happened to UK gilts, or government bonds, in September, bringing down the country’s prime minister in the process. But shaken stock markets inflict their own sort of pain too.