The Intelligent Investor: Looking Backward, Looking Forward -wsj
What Do You Know?
By Jason Zweig
Fellow investors,
Now that 2025 is in the rear-view mirror, it’s time for a pop quiz. (Answers—and lessons from them—are below the illustration.)
1. Remember all those headlines about how the U.S. stock market is superconcentrated in the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants? The S&P 500 returned 17.88% in 2025. What was the S&P 500’s total return without the Mag 7?
a) 10.36%.
b) 1.36%.
c) -1.36%.
d) -10.36%.
2. On Dec. 18, President Trump reclassified marijuana as a less-dangerous drug. In response, cannabis stocks:
a) soared.
b) went up a little.
c) went down a little.
d) crashed.
3. Which major asset returned nearly twice as much as the U.S. stock market in 2025?
a) real estate.
b) venture-capital funds.
c) international stocks.
d) bitcoin.
4. The Trump administration withdrew the U.S. from the Paris global climate accord, ended tax credits for electric vehicles, and shut off subsidies for solar and wind power. In response, iShares Global Clean Energy ETF, which holds alternative-energy stocks,
a) lost 4.6%.
b) lost 46.6%.
c) gained 46.6%.
d) gained 4.6%.
5. The best-performing major stock market in the world returned 112.03% last year. It was:
a) China.
b) Colombia.
c) Spain.
d) Kuwait.
6. Bitcoin is often regarded as a hedge against currency debasement. In 2025, the U.S. dollar, as measured by the WSJ Dollar Index, fell 6.65%. In 2025, the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index:
a) fell 6.3%.
b) rose 134.7%.
c) rose 17.1%.
d) fell 34.7%.
Answers in the comments