Fully half the decline in the S&P is due to the fall of just eight stocks:
Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Nvidia, Netflix, Tesla, and Amazon. Read more:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-market-is-top-heavy-but-c…
This is a result of those stocks being so big in the index in the first place; they account for 25% of the total cap weight of the entire S&P, and when they fall the index falls hard. That, of course, is dragging other stocks down as investors try to get out of the way of the carnage. Not that the others wouldn’t be declining also, it’s just that it looks so much worse than it is.
And not that that should stop you from running for the hills and burying the family silver in a jar in the backyard. 
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Books have been written about how passive investing in index funds gives better returns over time.
In 2019, passive investing automatically tracking indexes controlled nearly half the US stock market.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/19/passive-investing-now-contro…
When I posted the same article you did yesterday, I also mentioned that I deliberately avoided SPX funds because they were overweight in these overpriced giants.
https://discussion.fool.com/top-heavy-gains-gt-top-heavy-losses-…
Wendy
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Wendy, a question.
Does it violate board rules to discuss that one party’s senators have introduced legislation to require index fund managements to vote in accordance with their shareholder’s preferences, not their own?
I think that’s been an unanticipated byproduct of the major move to index funds. The “big three” have started using their voting power for ESG purposes - ExxonMobil being a recent example.
Seems a macroeconomic issue to me but obviously requires politics to correct.
Hence my question.
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Fully half the decline in the S&P is due to the fall of just eight stocks:
I wonder, how much of the return of the S&P over the last years is due to these same eight stocks?
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spinning asks,
<<Fully half the decline in the S&P is due to the fall of just eight stocks:>>
I wonder, how much of the return of the S&P over the last years is due to these same eight stocks?
Exactly!
The long term trend over two centuries is up. If you minimize the skim of trading costs and taxes by avoiding attempts to respond to market fluctuations you can get wealthy.
intercst
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<Does it violate board rules to discuss that one party’s senators have introduced legislation >
Yes, that would violate board rules. Legislation is introduced all the time which goes nowhere. Discussion is inherently political and a waste of time since most fail to pass.
WHEN and IF the legislation is finally passed into law, it will be allowed on METAR if the discussion is about how our portfolios would be impacted.
Wendy
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I also mentioned that I deliberately avoided SPX funds because they were overweight in these overpriced giants.
An equal weight fund like RSP avoids that issue.
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