Coming into 2026, I told you this was going to be the year of dispersion.
In fact, back in February, I wrote an entire post called Word of the Year: Dispersion.
The idea was simple. We were going to see some massive winners and some massive losers.
And the difference between them was going to be enormous.
Well, here we are in November, and the dispersion is even greater than I expected.
But here’s what I find most interesting.
It’s not just the difference between the winners and losers. It’s how those winners and losers keep changing places.
I call it the dispersion of the dispersion.
Money keeps flowing out of certain parts of the market and into others.
And it’s been happening all year long.
Let’s start with the most recent six weeks and work our way backwards:
Look at that. Technology is getting crushed.
Meanwhile, Consumer Staples, Health Care, Consumer Discretionary, and Financials are all having a great run.
You wouldn’t know it from looking at the S&P 500. The index has barely moved.
But underneath the surface, there’s a whole lot going on.
Look How Quickly Things Change
Now let’s go back a couple of months:
Wait a minute. Technology was the big winner?
Yes. The same Technology stocks that are getting crushed now were leading the market just a couple of months ago.
Utilities and Real Estate were the ones struggling.
Now go back another two months:
Technology was getting crushed again!
Financials and Health Care were leading the way.
See what’s happening here?
The winners keep becoming the losers. And the losers keep becoming the winners.
It’s not that everything is going up together or everything is going down together.
Money is constantly moving from one group to another.
And the differences in performance are enormous.
This Is What Bull Markets Do
Let’s keep going backwards:
Remember that massive Technology rally in the spring?
Look at that thing!
Technology absolutely exploded higher while Energy and Utilities were left behind.
Now compare that with how the year started:
Energy was the runaway winner in the first quarter.
Financials and Consumer Discretionary were getting crushed. The S&P 500 was falling too.
Five different periods. Five very different pictures.
And that’s what makes this market so fascinating.
We’ve also seen the overwhelming majority of stocks in the S&P 500 outperform the index itself over a recent month.
Think about that.
For years, everybody complained that only a handful of giant Technology stocks were carrying the market.
Now those same stocks are struggling, and most of the others are doing better.
Sure, part of that is because the biggest stocks have such a large influence on the index.
But that doesn’t change what’s happening underneath.
This much dispersion doesn’t guarantee stocks go higher. It doesn’t mean they have to fall either.
What matters is where the money is going.
If Technology were dragging everything else down with it, that would be a very different story.
But that’s not what these charts are showing us.
Investors aren’t just selling everything. They’re finding other places to put their money.
And they’ve been doing that all year.
Sector rotation is the lifeblood of a bull market.