How 2022 shocked, rocked and rolled global markets

Trillions of dollars wiped off world stocks, bond market tantrums, whip-sawing currency and commodities and the collapse of a few crypto empires - 2022 has been perhaps the most turbulent year investors have ever seen, and for good reason.

Tallying the final numbers is useful but doesn't even come close to telling the whole story.

Yes, global equities are down $14 trillion and heading for their second worst year on record, but there have been nearly 300 interest rate hikes and a trio of 10%-plus rallies in that time making the volatility freakish.

The main drivers have been the war in Ukraine, combined with rampant inflation as global economies broke out of the pandemic, but China remained shackled by it.

U.S. Treasuries and German bonds, the benchmarks of global borrowing markets and traditional go-to assets in troubled times, lost 17% and 25% respectively in dollar terms.

DoubleLine Capital's Jeffery Gundlach, dubbed the 'Bond King' in the markets, says conditions got so ugly at points that his team found it almost impossible to trade for days at a time.