The best and worst investments of the last five years

If you bought corn in the last five years you’re laughing, but if your copper play has gone nowhere take comfort that there are plenty of investment choices that have fared worse.

That’s the tale told by the Financial Times’ James Mackintosh (via The Atlantic), who throws up a Deutsche Bank chart showing in constant currency terms the best and worst performing asset classes since the global credit crunch commenced on August 9, 2007.

Source: Deutsche Bank via Financial Times

The upshot, writes The Atlantic’s Matthew O’Brien: “If you’re looking for a good return on your money, you could have done a lot worse than piling into bonds and commodities. The former have risen in value as interest rates have dropped to historic lows, while the latter have surged due to emerging market growth and supply shocks.”

However, if you’re mulling a punt on corn O’Brien cautions that it’s stellar rise has only come about in recent months thanks to the drought that’s gripping agriculture in the United States. “[Supply shocks are] why we shouldn’t read too much into corn’s top performance – our recent record-setting drought has sent their prices skyrocketing recently”.

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