Index Funds List

In the early years of the inception of the index funds everything was well-balanced. Now, the situation is completely different. The market is flooded by hundreds of index funds, which try to attract the potential investors, by sometimes offering them impossible for accomplishment returns and forecasts for cloudless future.

Index Fund List

Here is a short list of some of the most famous index funds that are on the market:

• Vanguard

  Vanguard started its first index funds back in the 70s, which, being substantially upgraded to meet the current situation, are still in operation. The Vanguard 500 Index represents the fund which tracks the activity of S&P 500. The Vanguard company provides a rich catalogue of investment opportunities. You can choose from index mutual funds, growth, value, mid-cap, small-cap, realty, bond funds and several international funds. The competitiveness of Vanguard comes from the low expense ratio and management fees that are lower than most actively managed equity funds.

  Vipers for Vanguard Index Participation Equity Receipts were created due to the pressure exerted by the market competition.

• The American Stock Exchange

  The ETFs (exchange-traded index funds) together with Spider are the American Stock Exchange funds that were released in 1993 in order to track the S&P 500. The company has contributed to the index fund overload with Nasdaq-100 Qubes, the Dow Diamonds, Morgan Stanley's international index Webs to name a few.

• Barclays Global Investors

  The company represents the largest financial institution in the world. It has increased its portfolio of activities by offering 60 different ETFs within the brand iShares. Aside from the tied to the Russell 1000 shares that you can purchase, you can become an owner of shares of the biggest fund from the iShare family - iShares S&P 500 Index Fund. Additionally, you can enrich your investment portfolio through the Russell 2000 and the S&P Midcap 400. The competitive advantage of Barclays comes from its extremely low expense ratio (only 0.09) which is strengthened by the fact that you can trade the ETFs any time during the day.

• Merrill Lynch

  The index fund that Merrill Lynch offers is called HOLDRs, which is grouped in baskets of 15 to 20 stocks. Due to the resurgence of the biotechnology sector in 2000, the company accomplished a great success with their Biotech. As a whole, the company's funds fall into the technology sector (broadband, telecom, online B2B, etc.). A similarity with ETFs can be noticed. Your initial investment can be in thousands since they are traded in round lots of 100. Another advantage is provided by the possibility of turning HOLDRs shares into the underlying stocks by paying a small fee.

• FOLIOfn.com

  The company offers to its clients predetermined packets of stocks that track particular indexes. The option of customization of the investment portfolio is included, whereas the portfolios themselves are not traded on the exchanges. The less flexible method of aggregation of client trades is implemented. Then FOLIOfn.com performs the trading two times per day. The revenue model includes an annual fee of $295, eliminating commission fees.

These are only a few of the many companies that provide index temptations.

Is it too much?

Is it possible this index overload to lead to our oversaturation? The index fund better performance is mainly thanks to its lower cost, which gives it a competitive advantage relative to the actively managed funds. This is true, but there is always an exception and in this case it is the ETFs.

Are we reaching the point of index fund market saturation? In today's wide variety of choice, the information and opportunity richness may turn into hindrance, since the many options may confuse the potential investor and discourage him from investment. Is the end of index popularity nearing?

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