In the hustle and bustle of the Gamestop share at the beginning of the year, a lot of what shaped the stock market year 2021 at the end came together: young investors who flocked to the markets, the increasing importance of social media for financial investments, neobrokers who deal with expensive shares turned inside out - and last but not least, excessive exaggeration.
Many market participants have been warning of this for a long time.
Despite all corona and supply chain worries, prices in Germany, the USA and Europe also rose in 2021.
This is also due to the fact that in the low interest rate environment, investors still see few alternatives to the stock market to protect their money from falling in value against the background of high inflation.
In the meantime, many important key figures that are essential for the evaluation of companies have been thrown overboard.
How else can it be explained, for example, that a manufacturer of electric pick-ups that only wanted to produce 1,000 cars this year was at times as valuable on the stock market as a well-established global corporation that produces several million cars every year ?
Those who can no longer see benefits and true value because of sheer greed, must expect nasty surprises.
Investors in the Chinese market, where regulatory risks have long been wiped away with the argument that the country offers huge potential, could already experience this in 2021.
Not that it made many rethink their behavior.