The 2008 Periodic Table of Investments

2008 may be a year that most investors would like to forget, but Callan has decided to go ahead and publish their periodic table of investment returns anyway, available here. Unquestionably, this is the worst year in the 20 years of returns shown on the chart. The best asset class, Barclay's aggregate bond index, had a lower return than any other top asset class over the years. This used to be the Lehman bond index, but they shuffled off this mortal coil. 2008's third place winner, the Russell 2000 (-33.79%), performed worse than the worst asset class in every other year.