Blog

Over the last few weeks, we’ve covered a variety of topics, including:

• ​How the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and NASDAQ indices work and which companies they include.
  
• How the values of these indices are calculated.
• How stocks actually work, and how they differ from bonds.
• ​How investment funds work, i...

Let’s start with mutual funds, one of the oldest and most common ways people invest. Here’s how the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defines mutual funds:

A mutual fund is a company that pools money from many investors and invests the money in securities such as stocks, bonds, and shor...

If you’re investing in, say, an IRA, most of the fund choices you’ll see will fall under one of two categories: Passive vs Active.

Let’s start with the latter. An actively managed fund is exactly what it sounds like: A fund where a manager takes an active role in selecting which securities to ...

When you purchase a bond, you are essentially loaning a company, government, or organization money. When you buy stock, you are purchasing partial ownership in a company. For this reason, stocks are equity investments while bonds are debt investments. Before we answer Question #3, let’s exami...

Before we get started, do me a favor. Pick up your phone or go to your computer. Open your internet browser and search for “S&P 500.” The first result will show the current price of the index. Make a note of the number.

Next, search for “Dow Jones.”

Notice how much higher it is? As in tens ...

You hear it every day when you turn on the news – some variation of: The Dow closed at 34,000 today. The S&P closed at 4,433. The NASDAQ rose 1.6% as tech shares…

You know all those terms refer to “the stock market.” But what, exactly, do they mean? Why is the Dow always so much higher tha...