It was a great year to hold bitcoin, but a bad time to have been invested in the Uzbek som.

As 2017 winds to a close, a look at the winners and losers around the globe shows that, broadly speaking, the riskiest assets performed well, with bullish sentiment on display in stocks, emerging-market sovereigns and corporate debt.

Securities generally seen as the safest and least volatile bets — think Japanese government bonds — trailed behind.