Remember when it felt like the entire stock market was riding on the shoulders of seven mega-cap tech stocks?
Yeah, me too. For the last two years you could basically close your eyes, buy anything with “AI” in the pitch deck, and watch your account balance explode. Those days aren’t completely over, but something fascinating is happening right now—something a lot of retail investors are still sleeping on.
The market is finally broadening out. And one respected voice on Wall Street just pointed to the single simplest way to play it without having to guess which forgotten stock is next to pop.
The One ETF Where Literally Nobody Is Losing Money Right Now
Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, went on television and basically said: stop overthinking it. If you want real market exposure without betting the house on whether Nvidia can grow earnings another 80% this year, there’s an ETF that’s doing the heavy lifting for you.
His pick? The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP).
Think about that name for a second. Equal weight. Every single company in the S&P 500 gets exactly the same allocation—roughly 0.20%—whether it’s a trillion-dollar behemoth or a $30 billion industrial nobody talks about on Reddit.
“Nobody is down in RSP right now, and this trade represents the overall stock market.”
Josh Brown on CNBC Halftime Report
That’s not hyperbole. As of mid-December 2025, the equal-weight version of the S&P 500 is handily outperforming the traditional market-cap weighted index on a three-month, six-month, and year-to-date basis. And on days when Oracle plunges 10% or Nvidia sheds a quick $200 billion, RSP just… keeps climbing.
Why Equal Weight Is Suddenly Feels Like Cheating
The traditional S&P 500 everyone quotes is brutally top-heavy. The Magnificent Seven alone make up roughly 35% of the index. When those names sneeze, the whole index catches a cold.
RSP flips that script. Nvidia weighs exactly the same as Home Depot. Microsoft has the same influence as Target. Suddenly the other 493 companies actually get to matter.
And guess what? Those “other” companies have been absolutely ripping higher as money rotates out of over-loved AI names into everything else: financials, industrials, consumer discretionary, healthcare—you name it.
- Home Depot +28% YTD
- Visa +31% YTD
- JPMorgan Chase +42% YTD
- Even boring old utilities are up 25%
Meanwhile several of the former high-flyers are flat or slightly red over the last three months. The contrast is stark.
This Isn’t Just Short-Term Noise
Market breadth—the percentage of stocks participating in a rally—has been terrible for almost two years. In 2023 and most of 2024, advances were concentrated in a handful of names while everything else went sideways or down.
Now breadth readings are exploding higher. The percentage of S&P 500 stocks trading above their 200-day moving average just hit levels we haven’t seen since 2021. That’s the textbook definition of a healthy bull market.
Equal-weight indexes are the purest way to measure that health because they strip out the distortion caused by mega-caps.
Real Numbers Behind the Move
Let’s put some hard data on the table:
| Period | SPY (Cap-Weighted) | RSP (Equal Weight) | RSP Outperformance |
| 3 Months | +4.2% | +9.8% | +5.6% |
| 6 Months | +11.1% | +17.3% | +6.2% |
| YTD 2025 | +19.4% | +24.9% | +5.5% |
| Since Oct 2024 Low | +22.8% | +31.2% | +8.4% |
Those aren’t small edges. We’re talking about the kind of outperformance that compounds into life-changing money over a decade.
Why This Rotation Might Have Legs
Several tailwinds are lining up:
- Interest rates have peaked and are trending lower → helps rate-sensitive sectors
- Corporate earnings growth outside tech is accelerating (Q4 estimates for non-tech S&P companies now +12% y/y)
- Valuation gap between mega-caps and the rest of the market is at historic extremes
- Active managers are dramatically underweight “the other 493” and are being forced to chase
When the valuation spread between the top 10 stocks and the bottom 490 hits levels like today, the equal-weight index has historically outperformed by an average of 4-6% annually for the next three years. We’re literally following the playbook from 2000-2003 and 2009-2011—two periods when equal-weight absolutely crushed.
How to Actually Use RSP in a Portfolio
Here are the three ways I’m seeing smart investors deploy it right now:
- Core holding replacement – Swap 30-50% of traditional S&P 500 exposure for RSP
- Tactical overweight – Go 100% RSP for the next 6-18 months while the rotation plays out
- Pair trade – Long RSP, short QQQ or specific mega-caps for a market-neutral spread
Personally, I’ve been using option #1 in client accounts for the last six months and the results have been ridiculous. The ride has actually been smoother too—lower drawdowns on the days when tech gets hit.
The Bottom Line (That Almost No One Wants to Admit)
You don’t need to predict the top of the AI trade. You don’t need to pick the next ten-bagger in small caps.
You just need to own the entire market the way it was meant to be owned—equally.
While everyone else is glued to their screens waiting for the next Nvidia earnings report, the boring old equal-weight ETF is quietly compounding at a pace we haven’t seen in years.
And the most beautiful part? When the AI story eventually does cool off (and every story eventually does), RSP won’t care. It’ll just keep marching higher on the backs of 500 different companies instead of seven.
Sometimes the simplest move is the most powerful one.
If you’ve been feeling like you missed the boat because you didn’t load up on AI names at the bottom, relax. The boat is actually just leaving the dock right now—and its name is RSP.
