Which investments performed best over past 21 years?

The period since the turn of the century has seen the ebb and flow of different factors and asset classes, new entrants to the market, the rise of passive and increasing complexity across financial markets. What conclusions can investors draw?  Over the last 21 years, by and large, risk has been worth taking. The majority of funds showing exceptional performance are focused on either smaller companies - from Marlborough, Jupiter, Amati, abrdn, Ninety One and McInroy & Woods - or, perhaps surprisingly, emerging markets - the First Sentier India fund, plus generalised Asia or EM funds from...