An S&P 500 Index Fund Already Owns These Financial Stocks. Here's Whether to Own More.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track the S&P 500 are the largest and most popular investments in the world for good reason. They provide access to the 500 largest U.S. companies, across sectors, providing diversification in one wrapper, at least among large-caps.

So when one sector, like financials, is struggling, another sector, like energy or technology, can pick up the slack.

The financials sector, for example, has been one of the worst performers over the past year. The 75 or so large-cap financial stocks within the S&P 500 are flat year to date on a cumulative basis, and they are up just 1% over the past 12 months.

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