The Morningstar Andex chart for the US equity market is one powerful one-page that packs a ton of information for investors. The chart shows the growth of $1 from 1926 to 2022 in various asset classes. It also other useful information such as economic expansions and contractions, S&P P/E, inflation and interest rates, geo-political events, etc.

Over the time period shown in the chart US small cap stocks were the best with an average annual return of 11.8% while large caps returned 10.1%. It should be noted however that it is unlikely there is some investor that held their investments all the way from 1926 till 2022.

Source: Morningstar

Note: You can view the 2023 chart at the Morningstar directly by clicking here.

The top five best and worst performing and emerging equity markets from 2003 to 2022 are shown in the chart below. In 2022, Turkey was the best performer as the country recovered from economic and currency crisis. Chile came in at second followed by Brazil. From 2003, we can observer at least one country from Latin America appears almost every year with the top returns among emerging markets.

Note: The returns shown above are in British Pound Sterling

Data Sources: MSCI. Data for individual countries from 2003 through 2022 came from MSCI Price Indices, which measure market price performance only.

Source: Lazard Asset Management

Related ETFs:

• iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY)
• iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF (EWT)
• iShares MSCI India ETF  (INDA)
• iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM)
• Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (VWO)

Disclosure: No Positions

One of the strategies for success with investing in stocks is diversification. It is probably the easiest way to reduce risk while allowing room to capture any profit potential. The most popular chart that visually demonstrates the importance of diversification is The Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns. Similar to the performance variance of sectors year over year, the returns of country indices also vary. A country’s equity market may be the top performer in one year while becoming the worst next year. No country consistently remains as the best market every year.

The following chart shows the annual returns of 22 developed markets from 2002 to 2021:

Click to enlarge

Past performance is no guarantee of results. In USD. MSCI country indices (net dividends) for each country listed. Does not include Israel, which MSCI classified as an emerging market prior to May 2010. MSCI data © MSCI 2021, all rights reserved.

Source: Which Country Will Outperform? Here’s Why It Shouldn’t Matter, Wealthscape