Next Tuesday 12/31/2019 at 4 PM funds, stocks and everything else will close on the last day of the month/year/decade and a new "bogey", target or gauge for performance will be set for every investor. Money managers are laser focused on getting the highest one year, three year, five year, ten year and (for the young at heart) twenty year returns for their funds.
The 20 Year Indexes chart below shows the 20 year continuously compounded gains for the major investment indexes starting at 1000 on the close 20 years ago, 12/31/1999-the beginning of the new millennium. One would guess that the Russell 2000 index would be the way to go!
The One Year Indexes chart tells a different story.
The NASDAQ index was the top performer this year, while everything else, except commodities, were all competitive. Different time periods create different winners. IMHO the S&P 500 index is the ideal long term index for nearly all investors.
The continuously compounded rolling returns show this clearly:
Source: Yahoo Finance as of the close Friday, 12/27/2019
The moral of the story is that the index you buy doesn't matter all that much as long as you buy and hold for the long term. Take and pick and, excepting the BCOM commodity index, get your decent long-term gains!
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Disclaimer: Posts are for education only and not investment advice, may be subject to change without notice, and, while prepared with care, may be subject to omissions and errors.