S&P 500

The S&P 500 is a stock market index that measures the performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.

In particular, the S&P 500 index is a capitalization-weighted index. The ten largest companies in the index account for approximately 26% of the market capitalization of the index.

At the time of writing, the S&P 500 has a market cap of $30.5 trillion.

These companies in the index include Apple Inc., Microsoft, Amazon.com, Alphabet Inc., Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, Berkshire Hathaway, Visa Inc., Procter & Gamble and JPMorgan Chase.

The index is one of the most followed globally and is a key factor in the calculation of other indices such as the Conference Board Leading Economic Index, which is utilized to forecast the direction of the US economy.

There are a variety of ways to invest in the S&P 500, which has traditionally been a popular tactic.

The most popular way to invest in the S&P 500 is to purchase an index fund, either a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund that replicates the performance of the index by holding the same stocks as the index, in the same proportions.

Furthermore, the S&P 500 is also reflected in the derivatives market, namely by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

The CME offers futures contracts that track the index and trade on its exchange floor.

Other exchanges also offer options on the S&P 500 index as well as on S&P 500 index exchange-traded funds (ETFs), inverse ETFs, and leveraged ETFs.