keywords: benchmarks benchmark stocks forbes portfolios
text: Bench-Pressed (Forbes.com) Forbes.com - Benchmarks are a big part of how investors make decisions. Each quarter investors pore over the results from individual stocks, mutual funds and other types of portfolios--and then compare them to an index, a broad basket of stocks in their category. If a stock or fund trails the benchmark's performance for only a quarter, a distressing number of investors sell. Bad idea.