This article talks about how four different types of things people can invest their money in have changed in value over time. The first type is a big group of American companies called SPY, the second is a group of companies from all around the world called EEM, the third is shiny yellow metal called Gold, and the fourth is a special kind of computer money called Bitcoin. It shows how much money someone would have made if they put $1,000 in each of these things at the end of 2023 and waited until now. Read from source...
- The title of the article is misleading and sensationalist, as it implies that investing in these asset classes is a binary choice between success or failure, when in reality there are many factors and scenarios that can affect the outcomes.
- The article does not provide any clear context or time frame for the analysis, such as how long the investments were held, what was the initial value of each asset class at the end of 2023, how often were they rebalanced, etc. This makes it impossible to compare and evaluate the returns objectively.
- The article uses arbitrary and subjective benchmarks to measure the performance of the different asset classes, such as the S&P 500 Index, which is a US-centric and market-capitalization weighted index that does not reflect the global diversification potential of EEM or the inflation-protected nature of gold.
- The article does not account for the fees and expenses associated with investing in these asset classes, such as the management fee of SPY, the bid-ask spread of EEM, the premium of physical gold over spot price, etc. These costs can significantly erode the returns over time and create biased results.
- The article ignores the risks and volatility associated with investing in these asset classes, especially bitcoin, which is a highly speculative and unpredictable asset that can experience massive swings in value due to various factors such as regulation, adoption, hacking, etc. The article also does not address the potential correlations between the asset classes and how they may affect the portfolio performance during different market conditions.