Even folks new to investing have probably heard someone mention index funds. But what are they and how do they work? This article explores index funds in detail to help you understand how they work, ...

For those new to investing or seasoned investors who like to keep things as simple and inexpensive as possible, an index fund could be your best friend. It's fair for beginning investors to ask "What ...

Investing can seem intimidating: What if you make a bad choice and lose money? or what about a lack of access to quality investing advice? At the end of the day, however, that fear can be holding you ...

Once upon a time, investors bought and sold stocks in individual companies, trying to beat the market’s average return. Then, in the early 20th century, the mutual fund — a single fund that held ...

One of the easiest and cheapest ways to diversify your portfolio is with broad-based index funds. These types of funds generally track a broad-based stock index such as the S&P 500 or Nasdaq, with ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Catherine Brock covers personal finance and investing. In a perfect world, stock prices would always reflect underlying value. But ...

While the COVID-19 pandemic’s long-term socioeconomic effects are yet to be known, most economies are still dealing with the effects of the global financial crisis. Moreover, millions of households ...

When someone says the Dow is down or the Nasdaq ticked up, do you know what they mean? These phrases refer to major stock market indices that measure the performance of a range of stocks. One of the ...

Quick answer: An index fund is an investment fund that tracks the performance of an underlying benchmark index, such as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500) or the Nasdaq 100. The purpose of an ...