Happy holidays, humans of Earth. The markets are closed but money never sleeps. 😉
2020 was unprecedented so here’s a quick overview of the most interesting trends from each month.
As our gift to you 🎁 — today’s post doesn’t just include charts and copy… Stocktwits Community Manager, Thomas (Tommy) Tranfo and Content Manager, Riley Rosenberger caught up with Stocktwits co-founder, Howard Lindzon on Panic With Friends. Listen to the Stocktwits 2020 Year In Review here.
Now to the charts… 🙂
We start from the beginning, January 2020.
Covid hadn’t yet come and Tesla had its third best month ever. The stock gained 55% and closed at a new monthly all time high. Here’s monthly chart:
Next we fly to February. Virgin Galactic took off. $SPCE opened the month at 17.15 and ticked a high of 42.49. This was the beginning of the SPAC attack. 🚀
Here’s the daily chart:
COVID emerged and claimed the markets in the second half of February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was oh so close to 30K but nobody knows nothing. 😉
$DJIA dashed to 29,551 on February 12 before falling 14% in the next 11 sessions.
Here’s the daily chart:
The selling intensified as we marched to March. Wall Street went remote as the NYSE closed the floor on the 23rd, the same day that the S&P 500 bottomed.
Let’s advance to April. Who would’ve thought Crude futures could go negative… 🤷♂️
JPMorgan shared:
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices went negative for the first time ever, trading between $0 and -$40 per barrel yesterday afternoon.
How is that possible?
Let’s say you own a May contract for WTI crude. That means you bought the right to be delivered an actual barrel full of oil in May. You bought it at ~$20 in the hope you could sell it for more than that.
But…given the COVID pandemic, demand for crude has plummeted. No one needs or wants oil right now, so the price of oil keeps going down. Today marks the last day you can get out of the contract, and you don’t want to—or aren’t equipped to—accept a delivery of physical oil. You probably have nowhere to put it!
Next we moved to May where the Nasdaq 100 ETF closed at a new monthly all time high. $QQQ gained 15% making its best month since October 2002.
Here’s the monthly chart of the Qs:
Just like that we jump to June where investors searched for the next Tesla. Nikola Motors had its best month ever. $NKLA surged 135% before gravity set in and the stock rolled down hill. lol 😬
$NKLA is down 83% from its high close on June 9. Here’s the daily chart:
July kicked off the Summer SPACtacular. TechCrunch shared the following on July 19:
In normal times, vacation season would be well underway and the hit song of the summer would be established and a regular guest at every beach party, barbecue and dance club. That’s not exactly what’s going down this summer. However, we do have ourselves a hit financial instrument of the season. The SPAC, or Special Purpose Acquisition Company, is this summer’s “Seniorita.” Everywhere you turn, there it is.
Apple and Tesla both split their stocks in the month of August. America’s Apple split 4-for-1 while Elon’s EV maker split 5-for-1.
The TikTok Saga was strong in September. In case you forgot, President Trump wanted to block US downloads of TikTok and WeChat. Maybe he forgot..? 😂
In October, social stocks soared following the TikTok saga. $SNAP gapped up 28% and closed at a new all time high after the company reported Q3 earnings. Pinterest also popped and even Twitter ticked above $50 for the first time in 5 years.
Here’s the daily chart of the social media ETF $SOCL:
Next up, November. The Dow finally finished above 30K for the first time ever. In less than 9 months, $DJIA dropped from 29,500 to 18,500 and rallied back to all time highs. What a time to be alive.
Here’s the yearly chart going back to 1896:
We’ll drop it off in December where Bitcoin broke out and unicorns made their way.
Airbnb and DoorDash dashed to Wall Street after both companies made their highly anticipated trading debut.
It’s blue skies for Bitcoin after the cryptocurrency broke through 20K and continues to carry on. Here’s the weekly chart:
2020 was a wild year. What happens next? Place your bets…
