What You'll Learn
- •The Definition: Understanding indices as benchmarks that measure the performance of a group of stocks.
- •The Big Three US Indices: A deep dive into the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq Composite.
- •How They Are Calculated: The difference between price-weighted indices like the Dow and market-cap-weighted indices like the S&P 500.
- •Global & Sector Markets: An overview of international indices like the DAX and Nikkei, plus trackers for commodities and market fear (the VIX).
- •How to Invest: Why you can't invest in an index directly and how to use index funds and ETFs to mirror their performance.