Talk:Stock market index

What is a Stock Market index?
Can someone explain how the index figures are calculated? adamsan 15:56, 31 December 2004 (UTC)


 * Something I would have thought this article might address... What actually is an index; what does it measure, how is it calculated, how is it used. What does it mean if an index is high or low, or rising or falling? They seem a bit more important than what types of index exist. 94.174.217.148 (talk) 15:27, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

inflation-correction
I'm a newcomer, so I'm just writing this as a suggestion.

I use the US as an example here. Stock prices are in US$, and so are the various indexes/averages of them. Values of an index from (very) different times are commonly compared. The purchasing power of the US$ has declined a lot over time. So, sound representation of an index is showing it in terms of purchasing power, i.e., after inflation-correction.

I suggest that this point be strongly incorporated into the article "Stock market index". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wttsmyf2 (talk • contribs) 19:25, 17 January 2006 (UTC)


 * "Stock prices are in US$, and so are the various indexes/averages of them."
 * Most of the world's stock prices are not in US$.
 * Indices/indexes are dimensionless, so it is meaningless to say they are in any currency.
 * But averages give you the average price of the shares in member companies. Strictly speaking, an average should be expressed in terms of currency. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.136.144.152 (talk) 23:14, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Bad Info on the Definition Addemdum
In the Definition Addendum it is stated that a stock market index can be traded. That is not correct - you cannot own or trade an index. What you can do is own a share of an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) which is constructed using the same structure and wieghting as an index, therefore it will follow the index exactly. Or you can buy (or sell) stock options based on the preformance of the index. In other words, you can own something that looks like the index or derives it's value from the index, but to say that you can own the index is incorrect. 173.197.29.146 (talk) 21:49, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Averages are not indexes/indices
See above. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.136.144.152 (talk) 23:10, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Closing milestones of stock market indices
In each of the three stock market indices on Wall Street (Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ Composite, and S&P 500), formatting of the article is inconsistent and I feel we should discuss possible consistent formats we can use for all three articles in question. Each of the issues will have its own subsection within this section. 9March2019 (talk) 01:25, 26 May 2019 (UTC)