How to Tell If You Were a 2005 Winner

I think, to crib from Joan Didion, this was a year of magical moneymaking for Valero, and I don't believe that Greehey can replicate it. But I do believe that he still can make a ton of money and buy back a huge amount of stock because, alas, there's still no capacity coming on.

I am going to excuse you from beating yourself up on Valero and Apple if you played the other winning theme in the S&P 500: health care cost containment. Express Scripts(ESRX Quote) and Humana(HUM Quote) snuck in that top 10 with 122% and 85%, respectively. The others, though, were either variants on Valero -- National Oilwell Varco(NOV Quote) (another double-down merger), Sunoco(SUN Quote), Burlington Northern(BNI Quote) and EOG Resources(EOG Quote), or oddball turnarounds like Office Depot(ODP Quote) and Corning(GLW Quote).

To me, if you owned any of these at any time, you are a winner in my book.

Have a great 2006!