MegaCap-8 Stocks Had a Very Bad 2022

Sometimes it is better to own a small boat than a very large yacht. The former is cheaper to operate and easier to maneuver. The MegaCap-8 stocks won the S&P 500 regatta during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. They badly underperformed during 2022 once the pandemic abated. (The MegaCap-8 stocks are Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, NVIDIA, and Tesla.) Consider the following:

(1) Market capitalization. The combined market capitalization of the MegaCap-8 peaked at a record high of $12.3 trillion on December 27, 2021. Their big losses occurred in 2022, when their combined market cap fell 41.4%, or $5.0 trillion to $7.1 trillion (chart). The S&P 500 market caps with and without the MegaCap-8 fell 20.4% and 13.6% during 2022.