"We decided to do a little research to find out the size of different investable asset classes globally, to try to get some color on the money flows in this extraordinary period. The data is from various dates from 2013 to 2014, but the differences don’t matter much.

• Over-the-Counter derivatives, notional amounts: $692 trillion at year-end 2014, per the BIS. For comparison, this figure was $72 trillion in 1998.
  
• Global real estate: $180 trillion, according to global real-estate services provider Savills.
  
• Global debt market, both securities and other forms of debt: $161 trillion at year-end 2014, per the Institute for International Finance’s Capital Markets Monitor. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), debt securities make up $95 trillion of this total.
  
• Global equities: $64 trillion, per the World Federation of Exchanges.
  
• Global M1 money supply: $24 trillion at year-end 2013, per the World Bank.
  
• Gold: $6.8 trillion at year-end 2013, according to the Thompson Reuters GFMS Gold Survey."