Ironic, that the best market returns are obtained in the most difficult part of the cycle.

For 2012-2013 was hardly a house on fire economically, either locally or globally.

Economic momentum was being lost, new crises lurked around many corners (though did not ignite).

Yet equities boomed.

Overseas it was the doing of the Fed, the European concept scraping through, and Abe giving us Abenomics.

At home, it was guidance from these global events plus the generous Rand depreciation that did the driving, also both reflecting and overcoming our many own goals, in the labour field but really on a much broader canvas than this.

Yet 2013 was a genuinely scary year giving great equity returns. Will 2014 be different?

The past year was dominated by two great trepidations, namely what Fed tapering of bond purchases would do, and whether any China slowdown would slither off the runway.

In the event, just talking aloud about future tapering (when Fed chairman Bernanke did it in May and June) was enough to lift the global yield curve, by over 125 points at the long end and adding as much to EM bond spreads over rich country bond yields.

That was a big slice of forced adjustment just on the barest of hints (the Fed tapering hint was revoked in September but markets stayed vigilant).

It was an important reason for EM currency weakness as capital readjusted its future risk-reward bearings.

Liquidity did the driving in 2013 (as it always does), negative for bonds and EM currencies, good to excellent for equities, mostly everywhere.