If nothing else, the past two months in the stock market should remind you that investing is hard, difficult, challenging, exasperating and [fill in the blank]. Here are ten recent charts that reminded me why this is the case. I no particular order….

Source: Zero Hedge

Emotional whipsaws: As bad as December was, January was that good. Go figure…

 

Source: StockCharts.com

No seriously, the past two months were ridiculous.

 

Now look at it in terms of US REITs…

 

Source: @scheplick

So you think you can use macro data to trade stocks…

 

Source: The Irrelevant Investor

Follow the growth right? At least at the country level GDP growth and stock market returns have no relationship.

 

Source: The Reformed Broker

Remember Apple’s big iPhone disappointment? Well the stock certainly did

 

Source: Retirement Field Guide

Think watching financial television will help you become a better investor? Guess again…

 

Source: Silverlight Asset Management LLC

Think experience and maturity will help you as an investor? Not so fast

 

Think you’re onto something new, like Bitcoin? Well, that sometimes doesn’t work out…

 

Source: Unsplash

And for some reason we still get stories about the ‘Super Bowl indicator‘ even though it was originally created as a joke.