If there’s one thing Dimensional Fund Advisors is unlikely to ever be accused of, it’s having a flair for the dramatic. Then again, that’s why we find their objective insights so appealing. In under 20 words, Dimensional offers us a marvelously compact context for considering current events.

Overall, the view is quite pleasant for most global and domestic returns alike, even though few financial forecasters were predicting this sort of slam dunk at the outset of the year. Digging deeper into the heady, mostly double-digit 2017 stock market returns, there’s another important theme found in this year’s data: While the profitability premium was positive across most markets, small-cap and value premia often underperformed their large-cap and growth counterparts.