Glossary

The S&P 500 Index is a widely followed stock market index that tracks the performance of the 500 largest publicly-traded companies in the United States.

It is a market-capitalisation-weighted index, meaning that the weight of each company in the index is proportional to its market capitalisation. The S&P 500 is a popular benchmark for the overall health of the US stock market and is often used as a proxy for US equity performance. 🇺🇸📊

For example, investors who want to invest in a diversified portfolio of US stocks without picking individual companies can invest in an S&P 500 Index fund or ETF, like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (ticker: SPY).

Fun fact: The S&P 500 Index was introduced in 1957 by Standard & Poor's, a financial services company that is now part of S&P Global. When it was first launched, the index only included 233 companies, which were later expanded to 500 in 1957 to provide a more comprehensive view of the US stock market. 🗓️