Opening the aperture on the growth of the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Index over the past two decades makes for interesting reading.

For a hot second there, we all thought 2025 was going to be fairly cruisy. The continuation of a strong bull-run, the end to recession fears, a couple of rate cuts. The biggest concern was perhaps the high premiums on stocks like the Magnificent Seven.

Much has been said (and written about) the extraordinary events of last week involving the unveiling of China’s stimulus measures, aimed primarily at protecting the central governments 5% growth edict.