Investor's Corner: Know Which Style Of Stocks Is In Favor

IBD provides charts and data that can help you track which group of stocks boasts better performance.

To see what types of stocks the market is favoring, check out the Big-Cap Growth Funds vs. Small-Cap Growth Funds chart each day in IBD's Mutual Funds section (today on Page A 10).

The chart, which sits just below the IBD Mutual Fund Index, tracks the overall performance of growth funds that invest in small-cap stocks vs. those focused on large caps.

You can see which funds are in the index, as well as the biggest positions of those funds. When the line slants upward, as it currently is, big-cap funds are leading.

Another place to confirm that's the case is on the daily General Market & Sectors page (today on Page B2). Daily charts for the Nasdaq composite, NYSE composite and S&P 500 are published every day.

The bottom chart rotates among a few other indexes: the Dow on Wednesdays, IBD 100 on Mondays and Fridays, and the 85-85 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The S&P 500 provides a good benchmark for big-cap stocks. The Dow does too, though with just 30 stocks, it's a narrow gauge.

Next look for the Market Sector Indexes section at the bottom of the page on the right-hand side.

Here you'll find various indexes sorted by best percentage gain in the past three months or year-to-date change for each.

Since the S&P 600 and Russell 2000 both track small-cap stocks, you can compare their returns with those of the big-cap indexes. If you want to drill down further within the size groups, also check out the mid-cap S&P 400's performance.

The chart above plots the S&P 500 and 600's year-to-date daily performance. Through Monday's close, the broader S&P 500 was up 8.6%, vs. the 7% gain by the small-cap index.

Last year, the S&P 600 and S&P 500 each returned 14%. But the Dow edged ahead with a 16% gain.

But in 2005 small caps led as the S&P 600 rose 7%, more than doubling the S&P 500's 3% and well ahead of the Dow's 1% deficit. The spread was much wider in 2004, when the S&P 600 rallied 21%, vs. the S&P 500's 9% return.