It isn’t over yet, but 2024 is on track to be a banner year for the ownership trade. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) has had one of its best performances so far this century. Through Nov. 26, the broad-trade index is up 26.2% for the year, a boost unmatched since 2013, when the S&P 500 was up 26.4% through that date.

In other words, if the index continues to rise in December, it could easily be the best act since the dot-com era.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way. At the commence of the year, the median projection on Wall Street called for the index to reach 5,068 by the complete of 2024, implying a modest boost of just 6%. At the period, the top trade prognosticators were concerned about the uncertainty of a decline and questioned the ability of the Federal savings to achieve a “soft landing” as it aimed to reel in expense boost without sinking the economy into a decline.

Instead, Wall Street was wildly off the mark, as the S&P 500 is now above 6,000, nearly 20% above that initial target. However, Wall Street’s complete-of-year targets have drifted upwards since then.

insure funds are underperforming, too

There’s more evidence that Wall Street is lagging behind the average retail investor this year. insure funds are up just 7.5% this year, according to data from insure pool Research and Morningstar.

Wall Street’s inability to projection this year’s bull run has led to the professionals having missed out on some of the biggest annual gains this year. Macro funds — which make bets around broad trends including stocks, currencies, raw materials, and bonds — have performed even worse than insure funds, up just 2.8%.

For person investors, there’s an straightforward way to beat the pros and capitalize on the gains in the S&P 500. You can invest in an index pool, like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF(NYSEMKT: SPY) or the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF(NYSEMKT: VOO), whose results mirror the index that they track.

Why index funds are so challenging to beat

It’s not unusual for the S&P 500 to beat the average insure pool. In truth, Warren Buffett once famously bet insure pool manager Ted Seides that the S&P 500 would outperform a holdings of insure funds over period of ten years, and Buffett was correct. By year nine of the bet, the S&P 500 was up a cumulative 85%, while the insure funds were up just 22%.

Index funds do much of the work investing for you, but they also have an edge that makes them so successful. The S&P 500 is made up of 500 of the most valuable and successful U.S. companies. It’s a selective throng to commence with, and many of the stocks in the index have a competitive advantage. What’s even better about the index is that it rebalances multiple times a year, taking out underperformers and adding rising stars.

For example, in September, S&P Global, which manages the index, said that Palantir Technologies, Dell Technologies, and Erie Indemnity would replace American Airlines, Etsy, and Bio-Rad Laboratories in the S&P 500.

Palantir and Dell are both seen as winners in the AI boom, so that shift should provide the S&P 500 more growth potential. Etsy, on the other hand, has struggled to develop since the complete of the pandemic. American Airlines has also underperformed, and its trade cap has fallen below $10 billion.

Index funds won’t boost every year, but they’re an straightforward way for anybody to be a winner on the ownership trade. One of the great things about investing is that even an amateur can beat the pros, and despite the attention that insure funds receive, most underperform.

If you’re looking for an straightforward way to develop your affluence and beat the pros, buying an S&P 500 index pool is as straightforward as it gets.

Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Palantir Technologies, S&P Global, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content associate offering monetary information, analysis and commentary designed to assist people receive control of their monetary lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

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