Is 2025 over already? How long did you have to search for that? Maybe if Mr. Marks knew that the tech billionaires were going to pay for favors he might have hedged his remarks.

+1. :)

I let my mutual funds own that stuff. Or not. Ten names out of 50 bazillion. Sure. In my single-stock collection, I look for less crowded trades. MSGS will surely be a winner, in season and out of season...

Same here, for the most part. I do like to have a list ready for big market pullbacks. Which is how I acquired AMZN at $85 a few years back.

Is 2025 over already? How long did you have to search for that? Maybe if Mr. Marks knew that the tech billionaires were going to pay for favors he might have hedged his remarks.

My point for years is that future predictions is a fool errand.
I have never invested based on the future, only based on current markets and they can be illogical and longer than anyone can predict.

Over the years, I’ve posted versions of the above many times. I’ve also pointed out that Marks rarely offers actionable guidance, instead publishing a great deal of commentary and fluff. When he finally did take a stance, I posted that I'm going to wait. It turns out his call for 2025 turned out to be wrong as well.

I've owned BMY for years.
CMCSA is on my watch list, primarily as an broadband infrastructure play. If/when it crosses a 5% yield I plan to start nibbling if I have cash available...

I let my mutual funds own that stuff. Or not. Ten names out of 50 bazillion. Sure. In my single-stock collection, I look for less crowded trades. MSGS will surely be a winner, in season and out of season...

Amazon.com/
AMZN
Bristol Myers Squibb / BMY
Comcast/ CMOSA
Exxon Mobil/ XOM
Fairfax Financial Holdings/ FREHF
Flutter
Entertainment/ FLUT
Madison Square Garden Sports/
MSGS
SL Green Reality
SLG
Visa/V
Walt Disney/ DIS
Article Title: "Amazon and 9 More Stocks to Buy for 2026"
I own MSGS ($237.44 Friday). One of 2 stocks in my hedge basket. Was thinking of unloading it after a near $40 price gain since August. Guess I'll hang around longer if Barron's wants to tout it.

It is healthy to see value stocks are making a come back. Broadening out to the other 493 stocks is beneficial to the market. S&P500 index has over 30% in tech today. A much higher weighing than the historical weighing. Two of my three defensive sectors are doing well: utility and healthcare, and consumer staples is lagging.
In additional, international value stocks are outperforming growth stocks, and that is quite a turnaround for many years.
@crash, we like to have a balanced portfolio, 50/50 stock/bond allocation. Getting a modest return above inflation is good enough for us. Besides we like to sleep well despite this year’ turmoil and chaos.

Don't knock slide rule. It required discovery of logarithms & mechanical ingenuity. Slide rule lasted 350 years. I still have mine in a drawer.

Dialed back equity exposure from 74% to 60% over the last 12 to 18th months (I’m 57 and retired) as fixed income became an option and stocks have run (will dial back further in Jan). Discovered or re-discovered great risk-reward options with transparent shareholder-focused mgmt) Was heavily in CBLDX and RSIIX until recently but wanted to diversify some from US Corporate credit exposure so largest bond allocation now is NRDCX with ACBAX (Cat bond fund), HOSIX (recently shifted much more heavily to IG from HY holdings). Have a call with SGI Monday to discuss USDX (money market-ish core with options income overlay) one of the few new products David mentioned as worth looking into this month. Using CLOA and CBUDX for cash+ for now.

unprofitable public subscale value shops are gone, remaining are all significantly larger (e.g., oakmark) and\or private.
DH acquisition was sorta expected, well-run value shops still attractive even after dismal 1.5decades of relative performance. the timing always unpredictable.
pzena also bought themselves out from public ownership, although they are backstopped by vanguard AUM.

It's a strange world where the indexes are setting records and VEIRX is beating SPY YTD and over 12 months, and FMIEX is beating QQQ over the same time frames.
Speaking of the 500, I have to go back 10 years on my watch list to see SPY crack the top 15 funds on my watch list. Now where would it have been without the MAG 7, and FAANG, and tech? I'm not smart enough to do that kind of figuring.
I could look at SPXT, but that still includes Amazon, two flavors of Alphabet, and Meta currently in the top four spots. It only goes back 10 years. Over that time frame it has returned 11.2%, and VEIRX has beat it. So have a lot of other funds.
If I go back 15 years SPY is only in the top 11 funds, and it has a lot less competition. What's holding it back? My guess is the competition is doing a better job of picking and weighting tech, and tech adjacent stocks. Of course there is also BBLU, which might be winning through the old sports formula of addition by subtraction. M* includes the performance of BBLU's OEF predecessor in some cases, but not all.

It might be tempting to overload my boat with equities, but I just can't bring myself to do it. With wife's IRA and the MMkt, we hold just 10 positions; five are OEFs and a single ETF, which offers international exposure, along with single-stock BLX. We are the slightest bit leaning into stocks, at 53% of total. My priority these days is good-looking stocks that offer dividends. The fun part is spending hours looking at performance and risk statistics for future prospects. I'm picky, more than I used to be.
I applaud your success!

"As of last night, 500 Index (VFIAX) has gained 17.7% this calendar year.
That’s on the heels of returning 26.2% in 2023 and 25.0% in 2024.
Even if 2025’s return doesn’t crack the 20% line, there’s no denying that 500 Index shareholders
have enjoyed a terrific run—compounding at a 22.9% annual pace."
"The chart below shows 500 Index’s rolling three-year annualized returns (based on calendar years).
If 2025 ends around the 22.9% mark, this three-year window would land well above the fund’s 12.2%
long-term average—ranking as the fifth-best three-year stretch since the index fund’s 1976 inception.
The only better periods? The late-1990s tech bubble and 2019–2021."
https://www.independentvanguardadviser.com/weekly-brief-three-great-years-now-keep-expectations-in-check/

I've got no expectations to pass through here again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URyqGD99Owg

....."That's what I want."

Gold miners surged today as well. GDX +3.53%
Is investing really this easy? Looks like we're all gonna be rich.
Market Summary

Another potential Fed drama ended early.
Federal Reserve unanimously reappointed 11/12 Fed Presidents for 2026. This annual ritual usually happens in January and there had been talk of this routine action becoming nonroutine in 01/2026.
What about the 12th? Atlanta Fed President is retiring in 02/2026, so his replacement will be handled later.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/11/fed-votes-to-reappoint-all-of-its-regional-bank-presidents-.html

"All I care is how to make money every week and hardly lose it."
Yeah, we know.

The SP500 made money 80+% of the years since 1980.
All I care is how to make money every week and hardly lose it.

UTUBE any help?

@Derf - I linked one from UTube and then pulled it down. Promotional in nature. Near worthless as a tutorial on how to use the system,
I usually choose to learn things the hard way - by trial and error. Fidelity's baskets are fairly new and I get the sense not many use them. BTW - I just put thru a full rebalance of my "hedged" basket. 10 positions moved. Less than 5 minutes to update my own tracker - not as time consuming as I'd feared.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251210863473/en/Diamond-Hill-to-Be-Acquired-by-First-Eagle-Investments
From Diamond-Hill's website:
https://www.diamond-hill.com/news/a-872/articles/diamond-hill-to-be-acquired-by-first-eagle-investments/