Despite two stellar years of growth, Tesla and Bitcoin have had a very turbulent 2022 when compared to investments in gold. An investor who allocated £1,000 to gold at the beginning of 2022, would currently be 13% up.
Riskier investments struggle
Bitcoin is the worst performing investment of 2022 so far, having declined 47%. If you had invested £1,000 into Bitcoin at the beginning of January, it would currently be worth £525. This is after two fantastic years of growth, where it returned 59% in 2021 and 292% in 2020.
Tesla was the most popular stock in the UK in 2021, with an initial £1,000 investment being worth £1,514 at the end of the year. However, anyone who bought shares in the EV maker at the beginning of this year will be disappointed, as they would currently be sitting on a 40% decline in value (£601).
Another poor performer in the first half of 2022 is the UK’s most popular fund of 2021, Fundsmith Equity. It has dropped fairly consistently in 2022 and a £1,000 investment would currently be worth £826. This is a 17% decline since the beginning of the year. It is followed by a FTSE tracker, an Exchange-traded fund (ETF) that mirrors the FTSE 100’s performance, that is currently down on the original £1000 investment, returning £960.
The top performers of the year
With global markets faltering, gold is currently looking like one of the best places to be. Someone who invested £1,000 at the beginning of the year would be £128 up (£1,128), and it reached a recent peak (£1,131) on April 29th.
If you would have invested £1,000 into the US Dollar at the beginning of January, it would currently be worth £1,114, despite a marginal fall throughout January and February (its lowest level was on the 19th January at £994.20) – it reached a year to date high of £1,103 in May. Compared to this stage in 2021, the dollar has seen a 13% positive swing in 2022.
Surprisingly, savings accounts are currently also beginning to show some form for investors, with Ipswich Building Society’s 1.15% interest rate, providing stable growth for consumers – currently worth £1,005. It is worth remembering that, unlike the other investment options, saving accounts are the only option that carry almost no risk of capital being lost
Commenting on the findings, Head of Research and Communications at the personal finance comparison site, finder.com, Matt Mckenna, said: “Despite two years of fantastic growth for riskier assets like Bitcoin and Tesla, this year is a stark reminder of the warning that past performance is not an indicator of future results. Higher potential reward comes with higher potential risk and it is a real possibility that you could lose a lot, or all, of your money when you invest – more so if you go into particularly risky cryptocurrencies or ‘penny’ stocks.”
Investors should make sure to thoroughly research any investment they want to make. Recent research has found that 7 in 10 (71%) investors who identify as beginners do very little to no research before making an investment, which is a truly worrying statistic. Make sure you’re not one of these people!
While the returns from the savings account are not eye-catching compared to the other assets, it is wise to have at least some of your cash somewhere where it is protected in case you need it for an emergency.
