The original version of this article first appeared in The Business Times.  Another year goes by with major stock markets at or near historic highs. Global equity markets, including the US, wrapped up 2025 with a strong finish. Expectations among Wall Street market strategists remain almost unanimously bullish for 2026.  The popular US S&P 500 Index delivered a solid return of 17.4% for the year in US dollar terms. This comes on the back of three consecutive years of positive returns, and being up six out of the past seven years—all rising by double digits. In most cases, investors should be happy with such a return, but human psychology does not work that way because we know how to compare.  Unfortunately, the S&P 500 did not just underperform the tech-heavy Nasdaq index for the third consecutive year; it underperformed global markets ex-US by a historic margin. The emerging markets index...