February Returns For My Model Long-Term Portfolio

February was a somewhat volatile month for my hypothetical model long-term portfolio. The portfolio was in the red for most of the month, pushing into postive territory during the last full week of February, and then dipped back down on the last day of the month, the 28th, closing down $51.20 for February. However, after the impressive January returns, the portfolio is still up $6212 for 2006, a gain of 6.21%.

The returns are shown in the chart below (click for a bigger image). As shown, the TRF (the Templeton Russia closed-end fund) was my top performer, followed by DVY (the dividend ETF), XLF (the S&P 500 Financials ETF), and VFINX (the Vanguard S&P 500 fund). The worst performers, on the other hand, were EEM (the iShares Emerging Markets ETF), VIMSX (the Vanguard mid-cap index fund), and QQQQ (the Nasdaq 100 ETF). My portfolio did ok because of the strength of the Russia stock market and of the large-cap stocks that dominate DVY, XLF, and VFINX. Perhaps we are finally witnessing the start of the long-awaited outperformance of large-cap relative to small-cap stocks. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens in March...