Strange times that we live in! Shares around the globe have fallen quite sharply, driven down by the uncertainty of rising interest rates (how far will they go?), the war in Ukraine (will it spread?) and the pandemic (is it over?). Shares, on average, have fallen about 25 percent.

There’s nothing especially unusual in that; shares have fallen like that often enough in the past.

However, the unusual thing this time is that every other major asset type has fallen as well: shares, bonds, gold, property and cryptocurrency have all taken a correlated plunge. Some bigger, some smaller than shares, but nevertheless, they have all been following the same downwards direction.

Investors like investment types that are negatively correlated – that is, ones that rise when others fall. For example, the economic conditions that drive down the price and performance of shares usually mean that bonds and fixed interest prices climb higher. When bond prices rise, the effects of a share market fall are softened.

Not so at the moment. There is no investment type rising in value to stop a portfolio’s downwards direction, nothing to cushion the blow. Everything is going down.

This time around, for investors, there is no safe haven.

Over the last couple of months, I have spoken at many seminars and found people looking for something to invest in that would actually make some gains. For some, this borders on desperation.

Speculators, on the other hand, buy an asset with the purpose and intent of flicking it on at higher prices. They are not buying for income – cryptocurrency and gold have no income, so you can only speculate on price change. As such, they are simply waiting for (speculating on) someone to come along and pay a higher price.

People who buy and sell cryptocurrencies are clearly speculating. So too are people who buy things like gold, silver, art, jewellery, antiques, commodities and bare land. Because they have no income, they cannot be investments.

In fact, there are only four broad categories of assets that are investments: shares (which have profits or the prospect of profits), property (rent), fixed interest/bonds (interest) and cash (interest). Everything else that might be called an “investment” is, in reality, speculation.

Speculation is riskier – there is no return unless the asset’s value moves in the right direction. On the other hand, investment should give a return regardless of what happens to its price. This income that they earn from their investment allows them to wait. They are, after all, receiving their dividends, rent or interest.

I am very clear that I am an investor – and that cryptocurrency and gold are not things I can “invest” in. I am not, therefore, engaged in these kinds of speculation. I recognise some people have made a lot of money by speculating on cryptocurrency (there are also a lot who have lost), but I am not going to risk joining them.

Although we have markets that offer little comfort in any direction at the moment, I will not stumble off to look at fringe assets that I know little about to speculate on. Better instead to stick to investment and ride out this market slump, keeping funds intact to buy proper investments when the time is right.