It was a very good year—no doubt about it. The capital and commodity markets delivered strong gains in 2010. It was nearly a clean sweep, in fact, with prices rising across the board among the major asset classes. But it was also a volatile year. The handsome gains for the past 12 months masks the turmoil that roiled the markets at times. As a result, attempts at trading in pursuit of market-beating returns was a treacherous game. As usual, those who succeeded came at the expense of those who failed. Meantime, a broadly defined, passively weighted mix of everything dispensed middling performance.