The 2020 Year-End Financial Quiz

In a world where central banks have thrown out all the rules, where bond markets (and soon stocks) have been nationalized, and where retail investors outperform hedge funds 14 to 1…

… professional traders understandably feel more obsolete, and bored, than ever.

So to bring them some cheer and break the monotony of a dreary existence where the only thing that matters is how many billions Powell and crew will inject over the next hour (the correct answer is below), here is Bank of America’s financial market year-end quiz.

1.On Jan 30th the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a globalhealth emergency on Mar 10th declared a global pandemic; as of Dec 17th 2020 howmany COVID-19 vaccines are in development around the world?

• a.3
• b.10
• c.15
• d.32

2.How many people in the world will be vaccinated for COVID-19 every single minute in 2021 based on current forecasts?

• a.2
• b.20
• c.200
• d.2000

3.The pandemic plunged the UK economy into one of the deepest recessions in history (GDP is forecast to decline 11.3% in 2020); when did the UK economy last contract by more?

• a.1709 (in The Great Frost, coldest European winter of past 500 years)
• b.1815 (end of the Napoleonic wars)
• c.1918 (end of World War I)
• d.1931 (Great Depression & British pound comes off gold standard)

4.How many times did global central banks cut interest rates in 2020?

• a.60
• b.125
• c.175
• d.190

5.And how much did the big 4 central banks (Fed, ECB, BoE, BoJ) spend every 60minutes buying financial assets (QE) between March & November this year?

• a.$500mn
• b.$800mn
• c.$1.4bn
• d.$2.2bn

6.Who in 2017 said “Would I say there will never, ever be another financial crisis?Probably that would be going too far. But I do think we’re much safer, and I hope that it will not be in our lifetimes, and I don’t believe it will be”?

• a.Jerome Powell
• b.Christine Lagarde
• c.Janet Yellen
• d.Steve Mnuchin

7.During the vicious financial market crash of Mar’20 only one of the following acted as a “safe haven” and actually rose in value; which one was it?

• a.Gold
• b.The US dollar
• c.The 30-year Treasury bond
• d.Bitcoin

8.Which of the following asset classes enjoyed the largest fund inflows as a % ofAUM in 2020?

• a.Gold
• b.Cash
• c.Bonds
• d.Equities

9.According to aggregated BAC credit and debit card data, which category is currently seeing the largest YoY increase in consumer spending?

• a.Furniture
• b.Home improvement
• c.Online electronics
• d.Grocery

10.The consensus forecast for US GDP growth in 2021 is 4.5%; this will be the strongest US economic growth since which year?

• a.1999
• b.2000
• c.2007
• d.2010

11.The US federal government is on course to spend $7tn in 2020; what is the current level of U.S. national debt per citizen?

• a.$23,000
• b.$43,000
• c.$63,000
• d.$83,000

12.Excluding the US stock market the current level of global equities (MSCI ACWI) is currently how far away from their multi-year peak in Oct 2007?

• a.25% higher
• b.10% higher
• c.The same level
• d.10% lower

13.What was the best performing stock in the MSCI ACWI in 2020?

• a.U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla
• b.Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio
• c.Malaysian latex glove producer Top Glove
• d.U.S. mobile payments company Square

14.Which of the 5 FAANG stocks was the top performer in 2020?

• a.Facebook
• b.Apple
• c.Amazon
• d.Netflix
• e.Google

15.Which of the following themes had the best return in 2020?

• a.Crypto
• b.Solar
• c.CRISPR
• d.Carbon

16.And finally, who was the last President to govern following a “blue wave” election?

• a.John F. Kennedy 1960
• b.Jimmy Carter 1976
• c.Bill Clinton 1992
• d.Barack Obama 2008

Answers: click here.