email alerts
DEFINITIONS
Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index
An unmanaged index composed of securities from the Barclays Capital Government/Corporate Bond Index, Mortgage-Backed Securities Index and the Asset-Backed Securities Index. Total return comprises price appreciation/depreciation and income as a percentage of the original investment. Indices are rebalanced monthly by market capitalization.
Closed-end Fund
A publicly traded investment company that raises a fixed amount of capital through an initial public offering (IPO). The fund is then structured, listed and traded like a stock on a stock exchange.
Commodity
A physical substance, such as food, grains and metals which is interchangeable with another product of the same type, and which investors buy or sell, usually through futures contracts. The price of the commodity is subject to supply and demand. Risk is actually the reason exchange trading of the basic agricultural products began.
Dow Jones Aggressive U.S. Portfolio Index
Benchmark based on the Dow Jones Relative Risk Index and consists of 100% stocks.
Dow Jones Conservative U.S. Portfolio Index
Benchmark based on the Dow Jones Relative Risk Index and consists of 20% equities and 80% fixed income.
Dow Jones Moderate U.S. Portfolio Index
Benchmark based on the Dow Jones Relative Risk Index and consists of 60% equities and 40% fixed income.
Dow Jones Moderately Aggressive U.S. Portfolio Index
Benchmark based on the Dow Jones Relative Risk Index and consists of 80% equities and 20% fixed income.
Dow Jones Moderately Conservative U.S. Portfolio Index
Benchmark based on the Dow Jones Relative Risk Index and consists of 40% equities and 60% fixed income.
Dow Jones Relative Risk Indexes
Total-portfolio indexes that allow investors to evaluate the returns on their portfolios considering the amount of risk they have taken. The family includes global and U.S. indexes for five risk profiles—aggressive, moderately aggressive, moderate, moderately conservative and conservative. These profiles are defined based on incremental levels of potential risk relative to the risk of an all-stock index.
ETFs
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are securities that closely resemble index funds, but can be bought and sold during the day just like common stocks. These investment vehicles allow investors a convenient way to purchase a broad basket of securities in a single transaction.
ETPs
Exchange-traded products (ETPs) are derivatively-priced securities which trade intra-day on a national stock exchange. ETPs are typically benchmarked to indices, stocks, commodities, or may be actively managed.
Fund-of-Funds
A fund that conducts virtually all of its investing through another fund (called the master fund).
Master Limited Partnerships
A type of limited partnership that is publicly traded. There are two types of partners in this type of partnership: The limited partner is the person or group that provides the capital to the MLP and receives periodic income distributions from the MLP's cash flow, whereas the general partner is the party responsible for managing the MLP's affairs and receives compensation that is linked to the performance of the venture.
MSCI China Index
An index constructed according to the MSCI Global Investable Market Index (GIMI) family. The MSCI China Index is part of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. An investor may not invest directly in an index.
MSCI World Index
An index composed of companies representative of the market structure of 22 developed market countries in North America, Europe, and the Asia/Pacific Region. An investor may not invest directly in an index.
MSCI All Country World Index
The MSCI ACWI is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed and emerging markets. The MSCI ACWI consists of 45 country indices comprising 24 developed and 21 emerging market country indices. The index includes reinvestment of dividends, net of foreign withholding taxes.
Mutual Fund
An investment vehicle that is made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets. Mutual funds are operated by money mangers, who invest the fund's capital and attempt to produce capital gains and income for the fund's investors. A mutual fund’s is structured and maintained to match the investment objectives stated in its prospectus.
Private Equity
Equity capital that is not quoted on a public exchange. Private equity consists of investors and funds that make investments directly into private companies or conduct buyouts of public companies that result in a delisting of public equity. Capital for private equity is raised from retail and institutional investors, and can be used to fund new technologies, expand working capital within an owned company, make acquisitions, or to strengthen a balance sheet.
Russell 1000 Value Index
An index that measures the performance of those Russell 1000 companies with lower price-to-book ratios and lower forecasted growth values. An investor may not invest directly in an index.
S&P 500 Index
S&P 500 Index is the Standard & Poor's composite index of 500 stocks, a widely recognized, unmanaged index of common stock prices. An investor may not invest directly in an index.
S&P Composite 1500 Index
One of the composite index series created with core indices as building blocks to development tailored portfolio strategies. An investor may not invest directly in an index.
S&P Listed Private Equity Index
An index comprised of 30 leading listed private equity companies that meet size, liquidity, exposure, and activity requirements. The index is designed to provide tradable exposure to the leading publicly listed companies in the private equity space. An investor may not invest directly in an index.
Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB In-The-Ground Global Commodity Equity Index
A modified capitalization-weighted, float-adjusted, rules-based index designed to track the overall performance of a global universe of listed companies engaged in the production and distribution of commodities and commodity-related products and services in the agriculture, base/industrial metals, energy and precious metals sectors.