2019 was the best year for stocks since the Dot.com era of over twenty years ago. It was a fitting end to a decade where US stocks gained about 190%! Just over a year ago, the glass is half-empty crowd seemed firmly in control as US markets swooned nearly 20% in December of 2018. Even though 2018 ended on the heels of the worst stock market losses since 2008, in 2019 US stocks made an abrupt and steep recovery with more than a 30% run to new all-time highs. It wasn’t just US stocks that rallied, though, as virtually every asset class saw impressive gains during the year.
Q4 2019 Market Review
DFA: How Markets Work and the FAANG Mentality
Did you know that if you had owned Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google, also collectively referred to as FAANGs, during the decade ending in 2018, you would have more than doubled the return of the broad stock market? While that may be surprising to some, what is even more interesting is that it isn’t uncommon for a small number of stocks to drive a large portion of the overall market return. See more in this month’s Issue Brief from DFA, How Markets Work and the FAANG Mentality.