The first half of the year is over. The first half brought with it a gold rush, stubbornly high unemployment numbers, and the IPO of Linked in. As an investor at the end, the only concern you should have is how your portfolio is doing? Now it is time to look at your retirement portfolio and brokerage accounts to see how you are doing. The goal of all equity portfolios is to beat the overall market. If your stocks, mutual funds or ETFs are underperforming its benchmark dramatically, it may be time to do some reallocation.  As of 7/8/11 the overall stock market measured by the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones has done the following;

DJ Industrial Average 10.79%

S&P 500      7.95%

The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 are indexes that measure the overall performance of the market. If you are in equities one can use the Dow Jones or the S&P 500 to measure performance. So far this year the asset class that is outperforming is Mid Cap Growth which is up 14.87% (as of 7/18/11). However this can change in the next 6 months.

One has a better time finding Elvis than trying to get some yield from the Feds. The 12 month Treasuries are not providing any type of interest for investors. You will need to be committed for 2 years before you can get some risk free yield. The chart below illustrates U.S. Treasury rates.

U.S. Treasuries

As far as bonds are concerned the best performing bond so far was TIPS at 6.67%. So how did your portfolio do? How is your 401 k performing against the Dow Jones or S&P?

Related posts:

1. Dow Finishes 2009 With Nearly 19% Gain
2. Investors Shaken by Market May Use Tax Loss to Increase Returns
3. Stock Picking: The Lost Art