The July 4 holiday weekend marks the halfway point of what has been an excellent year for stocks. Through the first six months of the year, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY 0.09% is up roughly 8 percent, nearly in-line with its average full-year return over the past 90 years.

The halfway point of the year can provide a bit of perspective on one of the classic debates among traders: is it better to buy on weakness or ride the winners.

With half of 2017 now in the books, here’s a look at how the best and worst S&P 500 stocks of 2017 are doing so far this year.

The Best

1. NVIDIA Corporation NVDA 0.36%

2016 return: +227.0 percent.

2017 return: +36.5 percent.

2. ONEOK, Inc. OKE 0.62%

2016 return: +149.6 percent.

2017 return: -9.6 percent.

3. Freeport-McMoRan Inc FCX 0.23%

2016 return: +94.8 percent.

2017 return: -7.8.

4. Newmont Mining Corp NEM 1.39%

2016 return: +90.1 percent.

2017 return: -4.8 percent.

5. Applied Materials, Inc. AMAT 0.93%

2016 return: +75.7 percent.

2017 return: +27.3 percent.

The Worst

1. Endo International plc – Ordinary Shares ENDP 0.49%

2016 return: -73.1 percent.

2017 return: -31.9 percent.

2. First Solar, Inc. FSLR 2.42%

2016 return: -51.4 percent.

2017 return: +23.0 percent.

3. Tripadvisor Inc TRIP 0.92%

2016 return: -45.6 percent.

2017 return: -19.2 percent.

4. Perrigo Company plc Ordinary Shares PRGO 0.93%

2016 return: -42.1 percent.

2017 return: -8.8 percent.

5. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated VRTX 2.41%

2016 return: -41.5 percent.

2017 return: +73.1 percent.

And The Winner Is …

After compiling the results, investors who bought an equal portfolio of the five best stocks of 2016 at the end of the year would be…

Click here to continue reading

Want to learn more about how to profit off the stock market? Or maybe you just want to be able to look sophisticated in front of your coworkers when they ask you what you are reading on your Kindle, and you’d prefer to tell them “Oh, I’m just reading a book about stock market analysis,” rather than the usual “Oh, I’m just looking at pics of my ex-girlfriend on Facebook.” For these reasons and more, check out my book, Beating Wall Street with Common Sense. I don’t have a degree in finance; I have a degree in neuroscience. You don’t have to predict what stocks will do if you can predict what traders will do and be one step ahead of them. I made a 400% return in the stock market over five years using only basic principles of psychology and common sense. Beating Wall Street with Common Sense is now available on Amazon, and tradingcommonsense.com is always available on your local internet!