2022: Not a Great Year
by JDH on December 31, 2022
As is my custom, after the last trading day of the year, I review my accounts and “take stock” of how I did for the year. 2022 was not a great year.
My entire portfolio was down 9% on the year.
I could make the case that that is a very good result, given how other assets performed. Here’s the 2022 decline in various assets:
- Bitcoin down 64% (although as I write this on New Year’s Eve morning, the year is not over yet)
- Gold is flat, with virtually no change on the year
- S&P 500 down over 20%
- DOW down just under 10%
- TSX down just under 10%
- ZEB.TO, a mutual fund holding the top six Canadian banks, was down just under 14.5% (but it pays a dividend of around 4%)
- Microsoft down over 30%
- Ishares 20+ Year Treasure Bond ETF, ticker symbol TLT down 33%
- Amazon down over 51%
- Tesla down over 66%
What saved me this year was having a significant portion of my portfolio in cash. Ignoring the cash component, my portfolio was down well over 20%, so I had returns similar to the overall market.
The sad news is that I don’t foresee an uptick anytime soon.
We are obviously heading into a recession in 2023 (if we aren’t in one already), and recessions are not good for the markets.
So my plan is to hold a lot of cash, and have an allocation to bonds (through TLT) and gold, and stay the course until a more obvious bottom is reached, likely in the second or third quarter of the year.
That’s the plan.
Happy New Year. See you in 2023.
2022: Not a Great Year
by JDH on December 31, 2022
As is my custom, after the last trading day of the year, I review my accounts and “take stock” of how I did for the year. 2022 was not a great year.
My entire portfolio was down 9% on the year.
I could make the case that that is a very good result, given how other assets performed. Here’s the 2022 decline in various assets:
What saved me this year was having a significant portion of my portfolio in cash. Ignoring the cash component, my portfolio was down well over 20%, so I had returns similar to the overall market.
The sad news is that I don’t foresee an uptick anytime soon.
We are obviously heading into a recession in 2023 (if we aren’t in one already), and recessions are not good for the markets.
So my plan is to hold a lot of cash, and have an allocation to bonds (through TLT) and gold, and stay the course until a more obvious bottom is reached, likely in the second or third quarter of the year.
That’s the plan.
Happy New Year. See you in 2023.