Yesterday, the S&P 500 Large Cap index rose 10.8% from the open to the close.

I looked to see how the HEDGEfolios Universe of 3,333 stocks performed.   Assuming my usual equal weighting and a long-only portfolio, the gain would have been 3.8%.

Given the allocation of UPs and DOWNs at HEDGEfolios and the equally-weighted portfolio, the actual performance here was approximately 2.3%.  Note that 67% UP signals times 3.8% is 2.5%, so it was pretty much what I would expect.

But back to the index reporting.  To say the least, it was extremely biased by the market-cap weighting of its components.

• An equal weighted S&P 500 Large Cap index would have had a gain of 7.2%.
• An equal weighted S&P 400 Mid Cap index would have had a gain of 5.9%.
• An equal weighted S&P 600 Small Cap index would have had a gain of 4.2%.

Unless your portfolio was perfectly weighted to the index, your results would likely vary widely.  Even if you had bought the SPY on the open and sold at the close, it would have given you a 7.4% gain.

Comparing your performance to the index is a good tool but the comparisons between your portfolio composition and the benchmark need to be considered.