Investors keen to understand what the new year will bring could do worse than look back to the events of 1998, as I believe there are interesting parallels and sentiments to what we saw occur in the market in 2015.

In 1998 investors were still reeling from the ongoing effects of the 1997 sharemarket correction and the Asian currency crisis, when the unthinkable happened – Russia's rouble collapsed and it defaulted on its debt. This in turn was a large factor in the downfall of the US-based fund Long-Term Capital Management, which sent shockwaves throughout the world.