The Big Got Bigger

Except for Amazon, the "tera" cap stocks beat the indices

It was a very good year for stock market investors: [bold added]

the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines and low interest rates...helped the S&P 500 to close at a record 70 times this year, more than one-quarter of all trading days, according to Dow Jones Market Data, and pushed the index up 27% in 2021. The Dow and Nasdaq did well over the past 12 months too, rising 19% and 21%, respectively, handing all three benchmarks their best three-year performance since 1999.

Much of the broader market rally was also driven by a small group of massive stocks, such as Apple, Tesla and Microsoft. Microsoft and Tesla shares have each risen around 50% this year, while Apple has gained more than 30%.

Our stock holdings are weighted toward the so-called "megacap" tech stocks, so the portfolio has done well for the past decade. The 2021 performance of about 30% was way above expectations, since we did not expect the biggest of the big to go up that much. If we're up 10% in 2022, we'll be happy.

If you keep your expectations low, you aren't likely to be disappointed.