Earlier in the year, we saw Britain exercise its decision to divorce the EU. They have until March 29, 2019 to come up with the terms and to have it signed and delivered. Maybe if things don’t go as planned, 2019 will finally be the year the market gets a cold.

2017 also marks the 10th year after the great recession, and it’s a been massive bull run since then. It isn’t going away either. Check out the chart further down. Markets across the board have shot up.

In October, The IMF mentioned that “The outlook is strengthening, with a notable pickup in investment, trade, and industrial production, together with rising confidence.”

The US economy grew 3.3 percent in the third quarter of 2017, which is a 3 year high and unemployment is the lowest it’s been since 2000.

We also experienced a defiant fat head idiot in North Korea testing missile after missile. The US has taken the hardest stance ever against the North and although we didn’t have any wars in 2017, who knows what will happen in 2018.

Xi Jinping’s rise to power continues. His current status has been elevated to the party founder Mao Zedong. With the goal of globalization and bringing down protectionism, China is expected to exert more influence and power into the world economy as long as Xi Jinping is at the head. Will be interesting to see where we are 5-10 years down the road.

Natural disasters also took a toll this year. Devastating hurricanes wiped out power, food, water and home in the US and the Caribbean. We have it good here where we rally and have the resources to help each other out. In other places like the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, only a little more than 50% of the population have power – 2 months after the damage.

But do we really want 2017 to end?

The Dow is up 25%, the S&P500 is just under 20%, and the Nasdaq is up over 30%.

It’s a sad farewell to an amazing 2017 for the markets.