Unfortunately for investors turning over the calendar to a new financial year won't bring an end to the anxious mood that has whipsawed through the major S&P; ASX 200 Index over the past 12 months.
If anything it's going to get worse.
Ahead is an election in the US in the first half of the new year and already tortured by Europe and Britain's seemingly intractable exit crisis, fragile market sentiment will be at the whim of central bankers and politicians.
Not a good combination these days with interest rates already at record lows and not doing the trick.
But pick the right stocks and it might not be as bad as you think.
For sure the major index is down around 4 per per cent over the past 12 months, but take away the top 20 stocks, that account for more than 60 per cent of the index and are down close to 13 per cent on their own, and the rest of the sharemarket is up around 10 per cent.
Dig deeper and the returns are there.
For sure the top 100 stocks are down around 6 per cent, but not for the first time it's the small end of town that has the growth.
The small cap index is up around 10 per cent led by stocks like Ingenia, APN News & Media and A2Milk.
But the problem is most investors, led by the self-managed superannuation army, have got their exposure in the large-cap space, the so-called blue chips that are struggling despite the dividends they pay out.
Numbers crunched by the Coppo Report show that over the past 23 years the major index has risen around 208 per cent for a 6 per cent per annum return.
Throw in those dividends however and the accumulation index has returned as much as 737 per cent or 10.5 per cent per annum.
But this past financial year the accumulation index is having its worse year against the major index since 2010.
Despite the dividends the outperformance just isn't there because the top 20 stocks have fallen so far.
The last time the top 20 stocks performed so badly compared to the rest of the market was 1989.
It comes as the payout ratio hovers around record highs and the outlook for the top companies apart from CSL doesn't look like it will change while there is still talk the major banks might have to raise capital.
The past 12 months also shows that the consumer staples sector, long considered a defensive part of the market, is also out of favour with a 3 per cent fall.
Instead investors are seeking safety in stocks like Transurban and Sydney Airport rather than bonds as yields continue to drop to fresh record lows.
Macro influences are once again going to remain the main driver of the sharemarket's fortunes as investors look to central banks to do more to support economic growth.
But this game must be drawing to a close and it comes as the Bank for International Settlements warns that negative interest rates are now causing more problems and it all must come to an end as soon as possible.
But there's probably not much chance of that. A look ahead and there appears to be little to cheer investors other than record low rates.
While fundamental valuation metrics suggest shares look cheap there's been no earnings growth for almost three years and although that will hurt the large caps eventually, if investors can find that elusive growth in the small cap space they will do well.