From bitcoin to Belize, here are the best and worst assets of 2017

New York

IT was a great year to hold bitcoin, but a bad one to have been invested in the Uzbek soum.

As 2017 winds to a close, a look at the winners and losers around the globe shows that, broadly speaking, the riskiest assets performed well; bullish sentiment was on display in stocks, emerging-market sovereigns and corporate debt. Securities, generally seen as the safest and least volatile bets - think Japanese government bonds - trailed behind.