Financial Terms Glossary
The most important financial terms - with simple and concise explanations.
Index
An index is somewhat like a barometer of the stock market. It reflects the performance of a large number of securities traded on an exchange. The best-known indices are stock indices, for example the S&P 500 or the AEX. There are different types of indices such as price and performance indices. Price indices only reflect the price changes of the underlying shares. Whereas, performance indices also include dividends in the index performance. The AEX is the most prominent stock index in the Netherlands and is a performance index consisting of the 40 most important shares on the Dutch stock market. Indices also exist for other asset classes such as bonds or commodities.