Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2026

With data stretching back to 1900, the Yearbook offers a unique record of real returns across equities, bonds, bills, currencies, and now gold helping investors place today’s market developments in historical context, offering essential perspective on diversification, asset allocation, and the enduring principles of risk and reward. While the themes dominating recent headlines may feel new, from the extraordinary surge in gold prices to the debate around whether AI could be a technology bubble, the Yearbook reminds us that many of today’s dynamics have precedents.

The core of the Yearbook is the long-run DMS database (Dimson, Marsh, and Staunton, 2026). This provides annual returns on stocks, bonds, bills, inflation, currencies and now gold for 35 markets.

Key highlights:

• Equities are the top-performing liquid asset
• New technologies do not always generate bubbles, nor do bubbles necessarily imply weak long-term returns.
• Gold’s role as an inflation hedge is nuanced.
• Chapters 4 and 5 introduce new work on currency hedging and geopolitical risk.
• This edition revisits themes such as diversification and American exceptionalism.

Dan Dowd, Head of Global Research, UBS Investment Bank, says:

The 2026 edition of the Global Investment Returns Yearbook reinforces the value of utilizing history to understand current market dynamics. With 126 years of data, it provides a powerful framework for understanding how asset allocation, diversification and the enduring principles of risk reward shape long-term investment outcomes. This historical perspective is particularly important at a time when market concentration, technological change and geopolitical uncertainty are high.

Mark Haefele, Chief Investment Officer, UBS Global Wealth Management, says:

The Global Investment Returns Yearbook reminds us that while markets and technologies evolve, the core principles of successful investing endure. History continues to show the importance of diversification, disciplined asset allocation and maintaining a long-term perspective.

Professor Paul Marsh, London Business School, adds:

In periods of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, it can be easy to lose perspective of the long-term investment horizon. The Yearbook, with its database stretching back 126 years, provides a rich source of information and experience to help readers screen out the short-term noise and learn from the past to better invest for the future.