A great deal has been said about how poorly the Russell 2000 small-cap index has performed recently. However, it is actually behaving rather typically especially when the relative meager year-to-date performance of large-cap indices is considered.
In the following chart, thirty-six years of daily data for the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies are divided by the Russell 1000 index of largest companies, and then compressed into a single year to show an idealized yearly pattern.
When the graph is descending, big blue chips are outperforming smaller companies; when the graph is rising, smaller companies are moving up faster than their larger brethren.
