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2023 ETF Year in Review and 2024 Outlook

The 2023 year was generally good for the stock market. We wrote previously about the possible market performance during the 3rd year of a presidential term, and 2023 didn’t disappoint. The total return, including dividends, for the S&P 500 ETF (ticker: IVV) was 26.3%, according to ETFReplay.com. However, 2023 ETF equity returns varied significantly across the eleven S&P 500 sectors. We will dive into these sectors in this post.

2023 ETF Returns by Sector

The chart below shows the total returns in 2023 for the 11 sectors in the S&P 500. As we can see, two sectors beat the S&P 500. These were the technology and consumer discretionary sectors. Artificial intelligence was a big theme in 2023 thanks in part to ChatGPT, which explains why the technology sector did so well. Consumer discretionary returns could be explained by continued pent-up demand as the impact of the global pandemic diminishes.

2023 ETF returns
2023 S&P 500 Index and Sector Total Returns.
Source: etfreplay.com

Unfortunaltely, nine sectors of the S&P 500 performed worse than the overall index. Industrials, materials, financials, and real estate did produce double-digit returns, but still underperformed the index. Also, health care, energy, consumer staples, and communication services all were nearly flat for the year. The worst-performing sector was utilities, likely due to the high levels of debt many utilities carry and how refinancing this debt in 2023 likely became much more expensive.

2024 ETF Outlook

So, where will markets go from here? Referring back to the presidential cycle analysis quoted above, the 4th year of a presidency is the second best for total returns of the S&P 500. The political uncertainty associated with year four of a presidential cycle is likely to blame. Many investors may want to see how elections this fall turn out before making larger investment decisions. And, investors may also be looking for indications from the Federal Reserve on future decisions on interest rates. Regardless of what happens on these fronts, 2024 is looking to be a very exciting year for ETF investors.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in tax-efficient investing with ETFs
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Inflation and Income Taxes in 2023

Happy 2023! Now is an excellent time to review changes to individual income tax brackets due to inflation. Here, we highlight the relationship between inflation and income taxes. To see details of all the 60 tax provisions changed for 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published this document.

How inflation and income taxes are related

As we discussed in our post from last month, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) continues its downward trend. Unfortunately, the CPI of 7.1% for November is still above the long-term norm of 2-3%. However, there is some good news for U.S. income taxpayers in 2023. The IRS adjusts income tax brackets for inflation, so income and capital gains tax brackets in 2023 have increased by about 7%. The images below show these new brackets for income, capital gains, and the standard deduction.

Inflation and 2023 Income Tax Brackets for Single
2023 Income Tax Brackets for Single Filer
Inflation and 2023 Income Tax Brackets for Married Filing Jointly
2023 Income Tax Brackets for Married Filing Jointly
Source: https://taxfoundation.org/2023-tax-brackets

2023 tax rates on retirement income

So, income tax brackets recently changed in a significant way. Our optimal retirement income calculator now provides an updated forecast for after-tax retirement income using the 2023 tax brackets. Forecasts based on the Common Rule withdrawal strategy remain free for 2023. In addition, you can expedite your calculations by registering a free profile. For individuals or financial planners wishing to use our award-winning tool to see the details that led to their individualized tax alpha, please consider subscribing before the price goes up.

Click here to see your individualized tax alpha

Live Software Demonstration

On Saturday, January 14th from 10-11 am Pacific Time (1-2 pm Eastern Time), we will be conducting a live demonstration of our retirement income and retirement savings calculators, fielding your questions, and discussing new features planned for 2023. Please use the link below to join us at this time. If you wish, please contact us prior to this demonstration with any questions you may have or use cases you wish to see.

top view photo of people near wooden table
Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com
Live Software Demo on January 14, 2023, from 10-11 am Pacific (1-2 pm Eastern)

If you are unable to make this live software demonstration, please contact us to arrange for an individual demonstration.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in tax-efficient investing with ETFs
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2020 Year In Review

Happy New Year from ETFMathGuy! In this post, we conduct a 2020 year in review of stock, bond and ETFMathGuy premium portfolios.

For many, 2020 was an unusual year in the investing world. And, investing in ETFs was no exception. In our first post of 2020, we discussed how we adapted to the new normal of nearly all ETFs trading commission free. That opened our portfolio construction process to consider over 2,000 ETFs. But, as we noted in another post from 2020, we immediately exclude any ETF with under $50 M in assets, which helps an investor avoid ETFs that may soon close, as well as larger bid-ask spreads when traded.

So, how did ETFMathGuy portfolios fare in 2020?

In short, we have been very satisfied with our ETFMathGuy premium portfolios. Our goal was to achieve returns similar to the S&P 500, but at lower risk. We established this goal based on rigorous backtesting all ETFs that were previously commission-free from Fidelity, or slightly less than 500 ETFs. However, in 2020, we expanded into all commission-free ETFs, and the returns from two real accounts at Fidelity appear below.

Total returns for stock market, bond market and two ETFMathGuy portfolios for 2020
Total returns for stock market, bond market and two ETFMathGuy portfolios for 2020

Clearly, we achieved our 1st goal of generating returns “at least as good” as the stock market, which we assume as the S&P 500. These returns were possible thanks to our model’s ability to dynamically adjust to market conditions. For subscribers with free memberships, you can see what these ETFs were by logging into your account, and browsing the 2020 portfolios through June 2020. For example, PALL and ARKK have been consistent components of our optimal portfolios. If you are a current premium subscribers, your January 2021 portfolios and rebalancing calculator are now available for your consideration.

But, what about risk in our 2020 year in review?

The pandemic of 2020 had a substantial impact on market risk. When measured monthly, stock market volatility was 25.8%. Examining the monthly returns for our ETFMathGuy portfolios, we observed an 18.1% and 19.4% and volatility for our moderate and aggressive portfolios, respectively. So, we also achieved our 2nd goal of keeping volatility lower than the stock market. We also revisited our calculation of Alpha and Beta. For the 12-monthly returns in 2020, we found Alpha = 2.48% and Beta = 0.49. Their p-values were 0.09 and 0.02, respectively for the ETFMathGuy aggressive portfolio.  Recall from this post that the smaller the p-values, the greater confidence we have that these are the correct values and have minimal estimation error. So, for those of you “seeking alpha”, these statistics indicate our portfolios likely produced “alpha” in 2020.

Our statistics on 2020 monthly returns indicated that we likely produced "alpha" in our ETFMathGuy aggressive portfolios.
Our statistics on 2020 monthly returns indicated that we likely produced “alpha” in our ETFMathGuy aggressive portfolios.

Forecasting 2021?

We won’t venture a guess at what the markets have in store for investors in 2021. Frankly, there are many, many articles already written on this topic. Instead, we will continue to pursue our goal to construct ETF portfolios that meet or exceed returns like the S&P 500 with lower volatility. If you are interested in accessing the January 2021 premium portfolios, please consider upgrading your membership now at 2020 subscription prices. In the coming weeks, we plan to increase our subscription prices for the new year. Please contact us if you would like a free sample of our latest premium portfolio.

We hope you found this 2020 year in review educational!

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
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2019 ETF Returns

Where will the global economy take us in 2020? To consider this question, we thought it would be helpful to review 2019 ETF returns. So, we devoted this post to highlight the 2019 returns among the major ETF categories.

So many ETFs to pick from…

In 2019, there were over 2,000 ETFs available to investors. Unfortunately, thinly traded and limited return history ETFs represented many of these. Thus, to focus on only the most major asset classes represented by ETFs, we chose to only review the 59 ETFs currently managed by Vanguard. Then, we broke the list into two obvious groups.

  1. Equity or stock-based ETFs
  2. Fixed income or bond-based ETFs

Equity ETF Returns

Vanguard offered 41 equity-based ETFs in 2019. Including dividends, the image below sorts their total returns for 2019.

Total Returns of Vanguard's Equity ETFs in 2019
Total Returns of Vanguard’s Equity ETFs in 2019

As this image clearly shows, our benchmark S&P 500 index ETF had a total return of 31.4%, making for an excellent year. In fact, it was the best annual return for this ETF since its inception in 2010.

But, there were other broad-based equity ETFs that did even better. The best performing one was focused on information technology. Other top performers included growth ETFs distributed across, small-cap, mid-cap and mega cap indices. And, a newer investment trend we’ve written about before also emerged as a leader: Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) in the U.S.

Returns from Information Technology Firms led the markets in 2019
Returns from Information Technology Firms led the markets in 2019

On the other end of the return spectrum, the energy sector lagged the S&P 500 by the greatest amount. Other noteworthy groups of ETFs tracked by Vanguard that also lagged the S&P 500 were as follows.

  1. Value and dividend-oriented ETFs
  2. International, both developed countries and emerging markets
  3. Many industry sectors (real estate, industrials, consumer discretionary and staples, utilities, materials health care)

Fixed Income ETF Returns

Fixed income ETFs also had a very good year in 2019. Using the total bond market ETF as a benchmark, fixed income ETFs returned 8.8%

Total Returns of Vanguard's Fixed Income ETFs in 2019
Total Returns of Vanguard’s Fixed Income ETFs in 2019

The leaders in the bond market in 2019 were those that held riskier bonds, like those from corporations vs. the U.S. government. Fixed income ETFs with longer maturities also led the bond markets in 2019.

Conclusions on 2019 ETF returns

We hope you found this review of stock and bond ETF returns from 2019 helpful. Interested in using the Vanguard ETFs in a 2020 diversified portfolio? If so, please check out our Free Optimal Portfolios for 2020 for some ideas. Or, if you are seeking a diversified portfolio that analyzes over 2,000 ETFs (including those from Vanguard), please review our Premium Optimal Portfolios for 2020.

ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
ETFMathGuy is a subscription-based education service for investors interested in using commission-free ETFs in efficient portfolios.
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2018 ETF Performance Review

Welcome to the 2018 ETF performance review.

It was a difficult year for a number of asset classes. The figure here shows that only a few ETFs had positive returns in 2018, using commission-free ETFs available from Fidelity. Based on broad indices for the stock, bond and cash asset classes, and including dividends, stocks lost 4.5%. Bonds barely broke even, returning 0.1% for the 2018 calendar year. The best performing broad market index was cash, which returned 1.7% for the year.

Fidelity-2018

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Here is your 2018 ETF performance review. It was a difficult year for a number of asset classes, with only a few with positive returns.