what are faang stocks 
in finance faang is an acronym that refers to the stocks of five prominent american technology companies meta meta formerly known as facebook amazon amzn apple aapl netflix nflx and alphabet goog formerly known as google the term was popularized by jim cramer the television host of cnbc s mad money in 2013 who praised these companies for being totally dominant in their markets originally the term fang was used with apple the second a in the acronym added in 2017 understanding faang stocksin addition to being widely known among consumers the five faang stocks are among the largest companies in the world with a combined market capitalization of around 9 trillion as of q2 2024 12345their substantial growth has been buoyed recently by high profile purchases made by large and influential investors such as berkshire hathaway brk soros fund management and renaissance technologies these are just a few of the many large investors who have added faang stocks to their portfolios because of their perceived strength growth or momentum each of the faang stocks trades on the nasdaq exchange and is included in the s p 500 index since the s p 500 is a broad representation of the market the movement of the market mirrors the index s movement as of august 2021 the faangs make up about 19 of the s p 500 a staggering figure considering the s p 500 is generally viewed as a proxy for the united states economy as a whole this large influence over the index means that volatility in the stock price of the faang stocks can have a substantial effect on the performance of the s p 500 in general in august 2018 for example faang stocks were responsible for nearly 40 of the index s gain from the lows reached in february 2018 example of faang stocksthe extraordinary size and influence of the faang stocks have prompted concerns about a potential bubble in faang stocks these concerns started gaining prominence in 2018 when technology stocks which had been driving consistent gains in the stock market began losing their former strength in november 2018 several faang stocks lost more than 20 of their valuations and were declared to be in bear territory by some estimates faang stocks lost more than a trillion dollars from their peak valuations as a result of the steep drop in the markets in november 2018 6although their valuations have since recovered the level of volatility sometimes shown by faang stocks and the oversized influence these stocks can have on the market overall is a source of concern for some investors on the other hand those who believe in the fundamental strength of the faang stocks have abundant evidence for this claim for example facebook is the world s largest social network with approximately 2 9 billion users 7 in its 2023 annual report meta posted revenues of 36 5 billion and net income of 12 4 billion 8amazon meanwhile has become a seemingly insurmountable force in business to consumer b2c e commerce with over 120 million products for sale it has over 300 million active customers in the united states of whom more than half pay for monthly amazon prime memberships 910 with 2023 ttm revenues of 575 billion and a net income of 36 9 billion it is not hard to understand why investors believe amazon s vast market capitalization is justified 11overall it is through strong financial performance such as this that the faang stocks have prospered recently over the past five years for instance meta and amazon have seen stock price increases of 185 and 500 respectively for their part apple and alphabet saw price increases of about 175 over that same timeframe whereas netflix saw its value rise by nearly 450 12