Eoin Treacy's view

The best, most innovative, and flexible companies continue to grow and erode the competitive edge of their less significant rivals. Those that cannot compete go into long relative and eventually absolute declines.

When the FANGMAN acronym was first created it did not include Tesla. Then Tesla became so significant it was added in. Now Netflix has failed to keep pace with the appreciation in the fortunes of the largest companies so the group is back to seven constituents. That reordered group now occupies more than half the Nasdaq-100.  

 A lot has to go right for companies to be granted high valuations. It’s not only a story, but there also has to be a fundamental basis too. For Apple, navigating the Chinese market, where they manufacture and sell without falling foul of the government censor is one of the most significant diplomatic success stories in history. For Microsoft, the embrace of subscriptions was a landmark event. Amazon’s foresight in dominating the datacentre market and disintermediating the reseller market were equally impressive. Tesla has mastered the art of regulatory arbitrage. Carbon taxes its competitors buy, help pay for the company’s factories.