Who is beating the market YTD (2014) and how?

[robnplunder]

Who is beating the market (S&P 500) 2014 YTD and how?

My mix of bond & stock funds are under performing S&P 500 by couple of points but that's somewhat expected given the mix. Anyone beating the market? If so, care to share how?

 

[Options]

Those beating the market through any sort of timing or other tricks this year will be those that trail it next.

 

[aja8888]

I calculated my portfolio performance YTD on July 1. I am up 7% for the year. But I am sure that can change in a moment.

Mostly S&P ETFs with a mix of dividend stocks (6 individual). 20% bonds, 10% Cd's.

 

[Fermion]

I am handily beating the market in my trading account (up 36% YTD vs the market, what, 8%?) but that is only a small portion of our overall portfolio which is just in the market index so can't beat it.

 

[Andre1969]

I don't even know...what's the market at currently? I think I was up about 6.9% as of last nite.

 

[Lsbcal]

If you don't hold the market basket then there is going to be some tracking error. 7 months is too short for comparisons I think.

Last I checked I was somewhat behind a portfolio based on Wellington.

But last year I beat it.

 

[SumDay]

I'm up ~6% for 2014, but for the past 12 months, we're up ~26%. I'll take it.

 

[FIREd]

Too much cash putting a drag on returns this year. We set aside a lot of money over the last year to buy a house, but that's off the table now.

ETA: return YTD=5.3% (only 45% equities at the moment)

 

[jimnjana]

as of end of June up 13% ytd. Skyworks.

 

[Senator]

I am not beating the market, and am making changes to my Roth to move towards market ETFs.

S&P 7.14%

401K 6.42%
IRA 7.51%
Roth IRA - 5.68%
Ind Account (lots of cash) 3.77%
Cash in Safe 0%

 

[dd564]

However it's calculated on Personal Capitol, I'm up 10.29% and the market (S&P) is at +8.54.

Not sure how I'm doing it. Probably the few shares of Apple stock.

 

[heeyy_joe]

Up 10.25% YTD, ancient Chinese secret!

 

[pb4uski]

Since my portfolio isn't 100% equities, I don't benchmark to the S&P 500. I have a mix of ~60/40 there is no way I will beat the market when the market is going good, but the inverse is true as well. 40% fixed income adds a lot of stability to my portfolio. My benchmark is the 2020 Target Retirement fund which is 61/39.

per Quicken my YTD IRR is 9.9%. That is an annualized rate for return so I'm up ~5.7% YTD vs 6.2% for the benchmark with dividends reinvested. My portfolio IRR for last 12 months is 12.8% vs the benchmark's 12.8% with dividends reinvested.

 

[Lsbcal]

Since my portfolio isn't 100% equities, I don't benchmark to the S&P 500. I have a mix of ~60/40 there is no way I will beat the market when the market is going good, but the inverse is true as well. 40% fixed income adds a lot of stability to my portfolio.

per Quicken my YTD IRR is 9.9%. That is an annualized rate for return so I'm up ~5.7% YTD vs 7.7% for Wellington with dividends reinvested. My portfolio IRR for last 12 months is 12.8% vs Wellington's 14.0% with dividends reinvested.

I'm lagging behind Wellington because my fixed income is currently skewed to CDs and MM funds. I missed out on the YTD bond rally and that is a price that I am paying for lower interest rate risk (my fixed income duration is only about 2.1).

There are some problems trying to benchmark to anything. For Wellington, I take my FI that I would hold even if I bought Wellington like: Ibonds, Short Term Investment Grade, cash. Then I form a portfolio around this with some extra foreign equity thrown in to get the equity/bond ratio up to about 65/35.

It's interesting that Wellington does so well with a modest foreign percentage and mostly large cap US. Their bond duration is longer too then my intermediate bond funds. So when I have a heavy foreign component I will outperform Wellington and when US large caps (especially value) are strong, Wellington will probably outperform me. Analyzing this sort of situation is the main advantage to benchmarking in my opinion. Trying to just beat-the-market doesn't tell you much.

 

[pb4uski]

You're right - I agree. In fact, I decided that the Vanguard Target Retirement 2020 was a more appropriate benchmark since it is closer to the 60/40 I target and it is all index funds like most of my portfolio and I had revised my post. Interestingly, my portfolio was closer to the 2020 than to Wellington.

 

[pops]

Beating the market using mechanical investing. Following screens at fool.com.

 

[6miths]

I am somewhat in my equity holdings but it's due to home country bias (Canada's TSX is up 13% YTD) and this bias has not proven a good thing in the last few years before this one. I'm a Couch Potato so I don't really pay much attention or aim to beat the markets. Slow and steady wins (won) the race.

 

[NW-Bound]

VFINX, Vanguard S&P flagship fund, is up 8.61% YTD according to Morningstar. That number includes dividends.

My portfolio is up 7.17% relative to its value at market closing on 12/31/2013, after adjustment for withdrawal.

I am OK with that, as I am only 70% in equities, 5% in bonds, and 25% in stinkin' cash yielding about 1% YTD.

 

[Lsbcal]

...(snip)...
I am OK with that, as I am only 70% in equities, 5% in bonds, and 25% in stinkin' cash yielding about 1% YTD.

I'm betting that if the market tanks you will be feeling like "only 70%" should be changed to "thankfully only 70%".

...not that it will tank

 

[NW-Bound]

Been waiting for a 20% correction, but where is it? What happened to all the Wh***'s that have been issued? Somebody has lost her magic spell? Or am I speaking too soon?

 

[Lsbcal]

Been waiting for a 20% correction, but where is it? What happened to all the Wh***'s that have been issued? Somebody has lost her magic spell? Or am I speaking too soon?

I guarantee a 20% correction. This is called the Lsbcal uncertainty principle. I can specify the extent of the decline or month of decline but not both with precision.

I am very sure about this.

Equation: decline * date = Lsbcal_constant

 

[Ronstar]

My 401k is up 13.5%. Now at 60/40 was about 75/25 until 6/1.

 

[Lsbcal]

My 401k is up 13.5%. Now at 60/40 was about 75/25 until 6/1.

But you must consider your entire liquid assets, not just a partial selection.

 

[ejman]

Per Quicken my annualized IRR is 10% so I don't feel too bad given my nominal 50/50. Quicken says the same number for Vanguards IDX500 is 16%. If I'm capturing 62% of the return of an all stock allocation with a 50/50 I'm a happy camper. Just hope that when the tables are turned and the market dives my 50/50 doesn't deliver 38%...

 

[sengsational]

YTD (June 30) IRR is 13.3%. I've got foreign stuff (that I took a bath on earlier) that's come back some.