At the tail end of 2022, the world was full of bearish forecasts about the outlook for US equity markets, including from Bank of America’s equity strategist Michael Hartnett. This negativity was counterbalanced by optimism about China’s equity markets, a sentiment that proved to be misguided. In January, the Chook super fund trustees were contemplating a repeat of the 2022 financial year, when a reckless punt on bitcoin miners backfired badly and resulted in a negative return of 9.63 per cent. It is ironic that one of the bitcoin miners that caused so much financial damage in 2022, Iris Energy,…