There can be several benefits of fractional ownership. If you're an investor, it enables you to split your funds between multiple assets without having to own them all outright, making it an efficient way of diversifying your portfolio. Alternatively, it can broaden access to historically exclusive assets. Buying a timeshare such as a luxury car, yacht, or holiday house means you can enjoy experiences you wouldn't necessarily be able to afford otherwise. Pictured is a private jet from NetJets Europe, a company that offers fractional ownership of private business jets.
An increasing number of companies are also offering fractional ownership of valuable items such as rare stamps, works of art, and even music royalties.
The metaverse is a virtual reality (VR) environment that will enable people to interact with the internet as though it's real life. Instead of sitting in front of your computer, the metaverse will theoretically make it possible for you to experience the internet through a VR headset. There are many potential uses for this. For example, colleagues could hold virtual meetings that would make it feel as though everyone is really in the same room. Similarly, gamers could 'live inside' their favourite games, carrying out the action themselves instead of controlling an avatar.
A ransomware attack is a type of malware, or malicious software, attack where hackers infect your computer. During a ransomware attack, a hacker will install a malicious file onto your device, often via an email or pop-up. The file contains ransomware code that can seize your data or lock you out of your system. The hackers will then demand a ransom fee to undo the damage.
It’s not just personal computers that can be affected by ransomware. Hospital computer systems in the UK and US have been targeted, and in June 2019 two city governments in Florida were also hit. Between them, Riviera Beach and Lake City paid hackers more than $160,000 (£117k) to restore their city IT systems and recover important data.
One of the most infamous recent meme stocks is GameStop, an American video game store chain. In January this year, a group on social network Reddit called r/wallstreetbets triggered the mass purchase of GameStop shares, driving its stock price from around $17.25 to over $500. In response, many brokerages removed the shares from their platforms. This sparked accusations that hedge funds were trying to manipulate the market and prevent everyday investors from making money. However, experts believed many of the people buying GameStop were doing so to try and create huge losses for hedge funds that had bet on its share price falling.
They may be some of the biggest businesses on the block, but they’re not universally popular. From accusations of paying too little tax to invading privacy, the Big Tech companies have come under fire for a variety of reasons over the last few years. Meta/Facebook has proved the most controversial. As the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has appeared before US Congress twice: first to testify about the social network’s role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018, and then its handling of the 2020 US election.
Digital-only platforms have become an attractive alternative to traditional services, with so-called challenger, digital-only banks such as Monzo, Revolut, and Starling stealing an increasing market share. According to research by Deloitte, 35% of customers in the US have used online banking services more during the coronavirus pandemic. This suggests the pandemic has accelerated an existing trend, making it more urgent than ever for traditional finance companies to embrace digitisation.
Cryptocurrency is a type of digital asset that’s used as an alternative to traditional, or fiat, currency. As its name suggests, cryptocurrency relies on cryptography – a process that converts data into code – to keep sensitive information secure and anonymous online. Instead of being stored in central banks, cryptocurrency is encrypted and distributed across a network of computers. This means it’s decentralised, with no central authority to maintain its value.
The so-called king of cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, also described as digital gold. Since it came to the market in 2009, Bitcoin has become one of the most controversial developments of the 21st century and paved the way for over 6,000 other cryptocurrencies. These are known as altcoins (alternatives to Bitcoin). Although none has come close to Bitcoin in value, the market as a whole is already worth a staggering $2 trillion (£1.46tn).
A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency. Many cryptocurrencies are notorious for their volatility levels, which have seen assets such as Bitcoin lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in value overnight. Stablecoins, on the other hand, are designed to be exactly that: stable. These cryptocurrencies are tied in value to another less volatile asset – usually a fiat currency, for example the dollar, pound, or euro, or a commodity such as gold. (A fiat currency is any money that's issued by a central government. These assets don't have intrinsic value; instead, they're regulated by the government that issues them.)
One of the first stablecoins was Tether. In theory, the price of one Tether token should always be equal to $1. Not only does this protect the asset from market-wide volatility, but it also makes it much easier for users to convert their crypto reserves into 'real' money. If an investor has $10,000 in Bitcoin, for example, they can trade their Bitcoin to Tether on a cryptocurrency exchange. Because the conversion rate of Tether to dollars should always be 1:1, they can then easily convert their funds to fiat money. As a result, stablecoins are sometimes seen as a gateway asset for investors who are interested in trading cryptocurrency. But it's not always straightforward, and Tether has come under fire in the past for not having the necessary US dollar reserves to back up its digital currency.
NFT stands for non-fungible token. A non-fungible token is a digital asset that’s used to represent real goods or objects, such as artwork or in-app items. Like cryptocurrency, most NFTs rely on blockchain technology. Unlike cryptocurrency, these goods can’t be traded or exchanged for items of the same value and many are one of a kind.
Although NFTs have been available since 2014, the market exploded in 2020 and is now worth over $2.5 billion (£1.8bn) and counting. Today, NFTs are a popular way to buy the rights to digital artworks. One of the most famous NFTs was a collection of drawings by Mike Winkelmann, who goes by the name Beeple. EVERYDAYS: The First 5000 Days sold for a staggering $69.3 million (£50.6m) at Christie’s earlier this year – but not every NFT is so successful. Damon Dash, Jay-Z’s business partner, made a failed attempt to sell the artist’s first album as an NFT and started a legal battle over streaming rights in the process.
A SPAC is a special purpose acquisition company. One of the biggest trends on Wall Street earlier this year, SPACs – or blank cheque companies – are usually launched by institutional investors. The company raises money into the SPAC through an initial public offering (IPO) with the ultimate aim of acquiring another business. This enables companies to go from privately held to publicly funded.
This year has been a record-breaking one for SPACs, but it hasn't been plain sailing. Between January and April alone, blank cheque companies in North America raised over $90 billion (£65.7bn). Richard Branson’s SPAC, a shell company called VG Acquisition Corp, also saw success and announced a $3.5 million (£2.6m) merger deal with 23andMe. However, when the US Securities and Exchange Commission described SPACs as "potentially problematic" in April, the number of SPAC deals rapidly declined. Wall Street's 'biggest trend' is yet to regain full popularity and SPAC critics are now more vocal than ever.
Unicorns aren’t the only mythical beasts on the market. Super unicorns – or decacorns – are companies that are worth more than $10 billion, while hectocorns are worth more than $100 billion. At the other end of the scale, you’ll find futurecorns. These companies have the potential to reach the $1 billion mark but aren’t quite there yet.
Now take a look at the countries that own the most gold