Mutual funds

About 9% of the high-yield market now boasts yields above 20% — the highest amount since the financial crisis. Buyer beware.

2015 saw 15 records broken by the corporate bond market in 2015, though not all of them were necessarily positive.

Investors are reassessing expectations for dollar appreciation after the greenback strengthened against all 16 of its major peers last year.

In data collected from looking at the returns of 2,076 fund managers from 1975 to 2006, IFA researchers concluded that 99.4% of fund managers lack "genuine stock-picking ability," while 0.6% were "just lucky" at attaining positive returns.

Vanguard attracted a record $236 billion in net deposits in 2015 as investors flocked to passively managed products.

In the midst of global turmoil, these funds have turned in the best performances over three years.

Chicago-based NextCapital announced a $16 million funding deal in mid-December that includes support from Manulife and AllianceBernstein. It had already found investors in 2014 from Russell Investments and Transamerica Ventures Fund.

Munis produced a 5.8% risk-adjusted return in 2014, more than double the other investments. They also outperformed in 2011 and 2012 as yields -- which move in the opposite direction as price -- fell to the lowest since the 1960s.

A renewed appetite for Irish equities adds another leg to Ireland’s renaissance among international investors, seven years after the financial crash sent them running for the exit.

The Bloomberg Commodity Index, a measure of returns for 22 components, slumped about 25 % in 2015. The gauge is headed for a fifth annual loss, the longest streak since the data begins in 1991.