August 30th, 2021 | Updated on March 8th, 2022
An index is a method to track the performance of some group of assets in a standardized way. Indexes typically measure the performance of a basket of securities intended to replicate a certain area of the market.
These may be broad-based to capture the entire market such as the Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) or Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), or more specialized such as indexes that track a particular industry or segment.
Indexes are also created to measure other financial or economic data such as interest rates, inflation, or manufacturing output.