It was another challenging year as one war continued without an evident conclusion (Russia-Ukraine), and another one broke out in the Middle East. Numerous countries are trying to fight off the increasing inflation, some with bigger success than others.

With just hours left of 2023, it’s interesting to compare the performance of the world’s largest stock market indexes, gold, which typically performs better during uncertain times, and Bitcoin – an asset that has been proclaimed dead numerous times in the past but still keeps coming back.

How Did Traditional Assets Perform in 2023

Starting with perhaps the most well-known US stock market index – the Standard and Poor’s 500. It tracks the performance of the 500 largest companies listed on stock exchanges in the US and is typically regarded as the benchmark that shows the health of the country’s financial state, at least in terms of large corporations.

It began the year at just over 3,820 points and quickly soared to 4,200 before returning to its starting position by March. The bulls stepped up on the gas in the following months, and the index jumped to 4,600 at the end of July. After another retracement, the S&P 500 finished the year strong and ended the last trading day of 2023 on December 29 at 4,769 – close to its all-time high.

In terms of percentages, the S&P 500 finished 2023 with a notable increase of roughly 25%. Although that seems quite impressive, one can easily see that most of the gains came from a few tech-related companies, such as Nvidia (245%).

Taking into consideration the aforementioned tech stocks, it’s logical that the Nasdaq Composite, which tracks mainly such assets, has soared the most from the indexes. In fact, the Nasdaq has outperformed almost all of its competitors with a 44.5% yearly surge that drove it from 10,386 at the start of 2023 to 15,011 at the end of it.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, on the other hand, averts from tech-related stocks. The index that follows just 30 large US behemoths has increased by 13.74% in 2023 – from 33,136 to 37,689.

What About Gold?

The yellow metal