STOXX

  

Categories: Metrics, Investing

We sure do love a good collab. 1998 was a fine year. And in 1998, Deutsche Boerse AG, Dow Jones, and the SWX Group released one of the hottest collaborations ever. They called it STOXX. The two x’s make it exxtra hip.

“STOXX” is a family of indexes that track a bunch of global markets, though their main focus is on the European markets. So...how many indexes are we talking? About 9,000, give or take. Nope, not a typo. Nine thousand indexes. Which is a lot.

There are two important things to know about STOXX. First, these indexes cover a ton of different industries, markets, types of securities, etc. Looking for a blue chip index? STOXX has got you. More interested in just checking out environmentally responsible securities? STOXX has got you there, too. Bored of companies and want to invest in an actual country instead? STOXX…yeah, you get it.

The second thing we need to know is that we can actually trade these indexes on options and futures exchanges. They’ve got three different indexes—EURO STOXX 50, STOXX Europe 50, and STOXX Europe 600, which all sound like NASCAR races—that are used as the underlying index for a bunch of futures, options, ETFs, and index funds. So if we’re feeling like our portfolio could use a little European flair, it might be worth introducing ourselves to the STOXX family.

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