For investors everywhere, 2020 has been a year like no other, mostly delivering a series of heavy body blows which has made investing in stock markets occasionally look like an activity reserved solely for the impetuous or just plain crazy.
Thousands of companies, large and small, have suffered irreparable damage; many have gone bust. The list of names to have disappeared from the high street makes for sombre reading: Oasis, Debenhams, Beales, Laura Ashley, Antler, DW Sports and Bensons for Beds, among others.
Away from the retail sector, hotels and airlines continue to struggle; the International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects the industry to “bleed between $5-$6 billion per month” throughout next year. It doesn’t expect passenger traffic to return to 2019 levels before 2024.