FOMO and Covid and Cryptos, oh my!

An unusual combination of events occurred simultaneously in early 2021: 1) a global pandemic had prevented people from spending money; 2) brokerage commissions were drastically reduced or eliminated; 3) interest rates sank to near zero or negative; 4) people had more free time than they could handle. Advanced technology allowed people with zero financial experience to quickly open new brokerage accounts, transfer money to those accounts within seconds from their checking or savings accounts, and perform asset reallocations manually or via AI algorithms. The result: as many as a billion people worldwide piled into assets, creating all-time record prices for stocks, corporate bonds, real estate, cryptocurrencies, and collectibles. Experienced insiders did their heaviest selling ever but were temporarily overwhelmed by eager new participants. Some nearly-worthless companies temporarily soared through social-media encouragement and subsequently plummeted.