War, inflation and the race to increase interest rates pushed Australia’s sharemarket to a financial-year loss for only the third time in the last ten years, as the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 10.2 per cent lower in 2021-22.

But it was speculators who maintained their faith in unprofitable technology stocks and buy now, pay later players, and more cautious investors who sought to diversify into bond funds, who are hurting the most.