Figure skaters have toe picks. Gross foot enthusiasts have toe picks. Why shouldn't stock indexes have...topix?
In the U.S., the stock market gets measured by two major indexes. You've got the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. They track the stock market in different ways. The S&P looks at 500 companies. The Dow looks at 30. The makers of the Dow try to choose 30 stocks that accurately reflect the overall economy. But the S&P has the broader scope.
In Japan, they've got a similar situation. The market gets tracked by two high-profile indexes: the Nikkei 225 and the Topix 30.
The Nikkei is the S&P 500 equivalent...broader in scope. The Topix acts like a Japanese version of the Dow...30 of the biggest stocks in the country, chosen to represent the overall economy.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is the Dow Jones Industria...2710 Views
finance a la shmoop- what is the Dow Jones Industrial Average? well it's just
an index. it's a basket of 30 industrial stocks hence the catchy industrial word [list of the 30 stocks involved in the Dow]
in there and it was started in 1896 by Charles Dow and Edward Jones sort of the
Coke and Pepsi of stock averages in the day .worth noting is the fact that while
the Dow average is quoted often in the press it's not something that real Wall
Street traders really rely on that much as a market place holder anymore. why?
well because the Dow comprises only 30 stocks. it isn't really a broad market [Dow Jones in the trash]
representation, and you know the way the S&P 500 is the 500 is bigger than 30. Big
Brother has way more stocks and is thus way more liquid than the relatively
blippi set of 30 stocks that the Dow offers. over time the Dow has changed as
companies were bought and/or died and or just withered and became no longer
relevant. i.e. newspaper industry. which means that this thing has gone through
more faces than Kanye West .yeah. [Kanye West faces pictured]
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What is the S&P 500? It's Standard & Poor's 500 generally largest companies, with a U.S. domestic bias. The S&P 500 is usually what investors think...