A Market By Any Other Name

It's not unusual for people to talk about "the market" as if there were a common meaning for the word. But in reality, the many indexes of the differing segments of the market don't always move in tandem. If they did, there would be no reason to have multiple indexes. By gaining a clear understanding of how indexes are created and how they differ, you will be on your way to making sense of the daily movements in the marketplace. Here we'll compare and contrast the main market indexes so that the next time you hear someone refer to "the market", you'll have a better idea of just what they mean.