Take $100 put into US stocks in March 2017. By late September 2026 it was worth $378, with dividends counted. The same $100 in US government bonds was worth $108, with interest counted.
Stocks and bonds are two asset classes. Each class earns money in its own way. Each also falls in its own way. This guide explains the main classes. It then shows what six assets returned since 2017. It also shows how far each fell at its worst.
What are asset classes? An asset class is a group of investments built the same way, whose prices tend to move together. The main ones are stocks, bonds, cash, commodities, property and crypto.
Stocks are shares in companies. US stocks returned 14.9% a year from March 2017 to September 2026, with dividends counted.
Cash, measured here by three-month US Treasury bills, never fell by more than 0.01%. It earned 2.6% a year, below inflation of 3.4% a year.
Every asset measured here except cash had a deep fall. US stocks fell 33.7% in early 2020. Bitcoin fell 83.1% from December 2017 to December 2018.
What is an asset class?
An asset class is a group of investments built the same way. What you own is alike. So is the way it pays you. Prices inside one class tend to rise and fall together, while different classes often move apart.
The six main asset classes:
Stocks, also called equities: shares in companies. They pay through dividends and a rising share price. We explain them in What Is a Stock?
Bonds: loans to a government or a company. They pay fixed interest and repay the loan on a set date. A bond's yield is the yearly return it pays at today's price. When yields rise, bond prices fall, as Bond Prices and Yields explains.
Cash: money in a bank account, a money market fund or Treasury bills. A Treasury bill is a US government loan that lasts a year or less. This guide uses the three-month bill.
Commodities: raw materials such as gold, oil, copper and wheat. They pay no income. Their return comes from the price alone.
Property, also called real estate: buildings and land. It pays rent and can rise in value. Our price data has no property series, so it is left out of the comparison below. For scale, US house prices fell 27.4% from July 2006 to February 2012, on the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index.
Crypto: digital tokens such as Bitcoin. They pay no income either.
Private equity, private credit and venture capital fall under alternative investments. They are harder to buy and harder to price, so this guide leaves them out.
Stocks, bonds and cash since 2017
Each asset is measured with a public fund price or rate:
Stocks: SPY (the S&P 500 exchange-traded fund, or ETF). It holds the companies in the S&P 500 index, about 500 of the largest in the US. An ETF is a fund that trades on a stock exchange like a share.
Bonds: IEF (the 7–10 year US Treasury bond ETF).
Cash: the yield on three-month Treasury bills, reinvested as each bill ends.
Source: YX Insights price data; FRED (DTB3); YX Insights
From 8 March 2017 to 24 September 2026, $100 in stocks grew to $378. The same $100 in cash grew to $128. In bonds it grew to $108.
Stocks gained the most, with the deepest dips along the way. Bonds rose until August 2020. Then the 10-year Treasury yield climbed from 0.52% to 4.98% by October 2023, while bond prices fell. Cash rose in an almost straight line. It flattened from April 2020 to January 2022, when three-month bills paid an average of 0.08% a year.
Which asset returned the most since 2017?
To compare six assets, we add three more. Gold and oil both stand for commodities:
Gold: GLD (the gold ETF).
Oil: USO (the US oil fund). It holds oil futures. A futures contract is a deal to buy oil at a set price on a later date, as our guide to futures contracts explains.
Crypto: the price of one Bitcoin in dollars. Our data for it starts on 8 March 2017, so every asset is measured from that day.
The chart shows the annualised return of each. That is the steady yearly growth rate that would turn the starting value into the end value.
Source: YX Insights price data; FRED (DTB3); YX Insights
Bitcoin returned 55.7% a year, by far the most. Stocks returned 14.9% and gold 13.7%. The oil fund returned 6.3%. Cash earned 2.6% a year. Bonds earned 0.8%, the least of the six assets.
Two assets trailed inflation. US consumer prices rose 3.4% a year from March 2017 to August 2026, on the Consumer Price Index. So cash and bonds bought less at the end than at the start. We look at cash in more detail in How Much Cash Should a Portfolio Hold?
How far each asset fell at its worst
Return is half the picture. The worst fall, also called the maximum drawdown, is the largest drop from a peak to a later low.
Source: YX Insights price data; FRED (DTB3); YX Insights
Oil: USO fell 86.8% from October 2018 to April 2020. On 20 April 2020, the US oil price, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), settled below zero, at minus $36.98 a barrel. The fund did not get back to its old peak until March 2026.
Bitcoin: fell 83.1% from December 2017 to December 2018. It took until November 2020 to recover.
Stocks: fell 33.7% in just over a month, from 19 February to 23 March 2020. They were back at their peak by August 2020.
Gold: fell 26.4% from January to July 2026. It is still below that peak.
Bonds: IEF fell 23.9% from August 2020 to October 2023. It is also still below its peak.
Cash: its worst dip was less than 0.01%, in March 2020, when bill yields briefly went below zero.
For most assets, a higher return came with a deeper fall. Bitcoin returned the most and fell 83.1%. Cash returned little and barely fell. Two assets break the pattern. Oil fell the furthest, yet returned less than stocks or gold. Bonds fell 23.9% and still returned the least.
Stocks and bonds in two sell-offs: 2020 and 2022
Different classes can fall at different times, as two stretches show.
In the crash of February and March 2020, stocks fell 33.7%. Bonds rose 6.4% over the same days. Cash earned 0.1%. The oil fund lost 56.4%.
In calendar 2022, stocks and bonds fell together. Stocks fell 18.2% and bonds fell 15.2%. Prices rose fast that year: Consumer Price Index inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. The Federal Reserve sets a target range for the Fed Funds Rate, the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans. It raised the top of that range from 0.25% to 4.50% during 2022. The aim was to bring inflation down. Higher rates cut bond prices, as our guide to interest rates and inflation explains. Cash earned 2.0% that year, while the oil fund gained 29.0%.
So holding bonds with stocks softened the fall in 2020. It did not in 2022.
How to read asset class returns
A few points help when you compare classes:
The start date changes the answer. Bitcoin returned 55.7% a year from March 2017. Measured from its December 2017 peak, it returned 18.6% a year.
A fund is not the asset. The WTI oil price rose 92.4% from 8 March 2017 to 24 September 2026. USO rose 79.3%. It must replace each futures contract as it nears its end, while it also charges a fee. Its own filings say this can make its return differ from the oil price.
Count the income. Every figure here includes dividends and interest. Price charts alone miss them.
One period is one sample. The years since 2017 were strong for stocks and weak for bonds. Another period can rank the assets differently.
An asset class is a group of investments built the same way, whose prices tend to move together. Since 2017, Bitcoin returned the most and the oil fund fell the furthest. Mostly, a higher return came with a deeper fall. Cash barely fell, but it trailed inflation.
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