CIBC recently published the 2024 Big Picture Chart, to demonstrate the benefits of long-term investing through all market and economic conditions.

It depicts return by asset class dating back to 1935, with smaller visuals that you can zoom into on volatility, inflation, and major economic events, among other topics.

Our takeaways

Global businesses

“The Big Picture” reaffirms our belief that for long-term growth, investors can benefit from looking outside of Canada to global businesses.

Many of these global businesses would be classified on this chart as “U.S. Stocks” because of their headquarters, but the global equity strategies we routinely recommend to clients focus on where their revenue is generated.

Equities

This chart also re-enforces our belief in equities. We often say we would rather own a successful company, than lend to one.

Equities can have varying risk profiles, depending on their industry, where they are domiciled, where and how they generate revenue, their capital structure and their size, among other factors.

Given all of these factors, we strongly believe that investors are able to mitigate risk within equities just as effectively without needing to own fixed income.

Patience and time

In each decade on this chart, a major event impacted investment returns. Macro-economic events around the world today, namely political conflict and interest rates, provide many reasons for investors to second guess the process.

With confidence, experience and a long-term strategy, investors are best suited to achieve long-term goals.

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