Benchmarking your Portfolio

Portfolio Benchmarking – Many people ask me about which market index we follow; either as a benchmark or overall health of the market. My typical response has been the S&P 500 Index even though it is heavy weighted towards the top 8 stocks. To prove my point, in Q1 2023 the top 8 stocks were up 6%, but the remaining 492 stocks were down 1% (Source: Bloomberg). Those top 8 stocks are all technology related. So you may be asking, are those top 8 stocks a complete representation of the overall economy? The answer is of course “no”. Should you measure your portfolio by the S&P 500 Index? The answer is “maybe”. It depends on your personal situation, duration to retirement, risk tolerance and the strategy you put in place for growth or protection in your portfolio.