Photo above - an authentic 2024 summer Olympics gold medal, already displaying corrosion. Hey, isn't there some sort of test to prove if gold is real or not?

Okay, let’s assume you’re like everyone else. Your money is in 3 piles: stocks, bitcoin, and maybe precious metals. Let’s ignore the 1,000 pieces of crypto currency spam we get each month, and look at the actual numbers on how those investments performed over the past 30 days.

The loser is . . . Bitcoin. Down 25%. You’d never know it from me in basket, though. The emails are hyperbolic: It’s going to the moon. Buy buy buy.

Second to last . . . US stocks. Off 1% (just the S&P. The broader NASDAQ is down 3%). That’s 12-36% annual capital erosion. AI fears, tariffs, and the rise of the $1,000 car payment and $1,000 electric bill are in the mix as reasons. I personally know 2 people with $1,000 a month car payments. Didn't ask about their electric bills. It's still winter-ish here in Florida.

The winner? Gold. Up 2% for the month. 50% for the past 6 months. 80% for the past year. See yahoo finance link at bottom.

Okay, so money is fleeing crypto and stocks, and taking shelter in gold. Please do NOT construe my column as advice to do the same.

I also took a look at foreign stock markets: let's see what’s happening over there:

FTSE index (London Stock Exchange) up 6%. Dollar fears appear to be real, although I’m not certain the British Pound is going to dethrone it as the planet's reserve currency.

Nikkei 225 (Japan) up 8%. It seems somebody isn’t taking China’s belligerence seriously.

Shanghai (communist China). Up 1%. Take your chances here, I guess.

I’m not doing a deep dive into India, Germany, South Korea, Ethereum, Silver, and collectable cars. They all have their fans. I’m just not interested of staking my financial future in those areas.

The biggest individual stock winner in the USA? Ticker symbol "TCGL". Went public last month at $8. Up 3000% now. $1 billion loss last year, before the IPO. $3 billion in market value - small cap. TCGL sells software security Cambodia, Brunei, and Singapore. A region which probably has a huge number of software attacks.

The biggest stock loser in the USA? Over a dozen stocks lost 90% of their market value. Most of them appear to be US listings for obscure Chinese companies.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Markets: World Indexes, Futures, Bonds, Currencies, Stocks & ETFs - Yahoo Finance