Stock indexes are collections of stocks meant to represent the market or a portion of it—they are used by investors as benchmarks against which to compare the performance of their own portfolios.

Indices trading is quite an important aspect for both advanced and beginner investors alike in the world of financial markets ...

Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning. The S&P 500 index consists of 500 of the leading U.S. companies’ stocks ...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, often simply referred to as “the Dow,” is another top-watched index in the U.S. for measuring the performance of stocks. The index is made up of 30 U.S. blue ...

Benefits of index funds Types of index funds Equity index funds, or stock index funds, track stock market indexes, such as the S&P 500 or Nasdaq-100. Many equity index funds are broad, such as ...

A stock market index tracks the performance of a select ... the number of shares you want to buy, and the type of order. For example, a market order executes at the next available price, while ...

This type of investing follows an index but also considers alternative factors in choosing the stocks from the index. Smart beta ETFs commonly include strategies that are equally weighted ...