Thus far this year, the best trade in the U.S. stock market is also the best trade of 2017, as well as the best of many others of the past several years. Despite some hints that value-based strategies could be poised for a rebound—following roughly 10 years of underperformance—so-called momentum stocks have continued to lead the overall market of late, shaking off recent bouts of volatility to resume their uptrend. According to Bespoke Investment Group, the top-performing S&P 500 SPX, -0.28% stocks over the month of August were also the names that have been performing well in 2018 leading up to the start of the month. By that same token, August’s worst performers of last month were also the names that have been struggling from the start of January through the end of July. Courtesy Bespoke Investment Group “Owning winners is often derided by contrarians as a way to underperform,” the firm wrote in a report, but these results are “one example of momentum begetting more momentum in financial markets.”via