If you have been reading GradMoney for a while, you should be VERY familiar with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, or even the Nasdaq, but what you might not know is that there are MANY indices in the United State Stock Market. For this addition of Macro Mondays, I thought I would talk a little bit about the other major indices that may not garner the same amount of attention as the big, bad indices that we know and love.

Below are basic descriptions for 12 of these stock indexes - enjoy! And Happy Monday! 

S&P 500

Tracks performances of 500 of the largest companies listed on the NYSE, the AMEX, and the Nasdaq system, accounting for approximately 64% of the market value of stocks listed on the exchanges

S&P 100

Tracks performances of 100 of the largest stocks in the S&P 500 index.

S&P Mid-Cap 400

Tracks performances of stocks listed on the NYSE that have a market capitalization between $200 million and $5 billion

Russell 2000

Tracks performances of the smallest 2,000 stocks in the Russell 3000 index, which have a market capitalization between $9 million and $2 billion and account for approximately 8% of the U.S. market capitalization

S&P Small-Cap 600

Tracks performances of 600 companies that have an average market value range of $80 million to $600 million and are in market sectors representative of the sectors typical in the small company universe

MSCI EAFE

The most common benchmark for foreign stocks in 21 developed countries in Europe, Australia, and the Far East (no U.S. or Canada)

Barclays Capital Municipal Bond

Comprised of about 8,000 municipal bonds that are all investment grade, fixed-rate, and long-term maturities.

S&P/IFC Investable

Tracks performances of 23 developing countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America that are available for purchase by foreign institutional investors

MSCI Emerging Markets

Tracks performances of stocks in 23 developing countries that are open to foreign investment

Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond

Tracks performances of U.S. investment grade bonds, including government, government agency, corporate and mortgage-backed securities between one and ten years

Wilshire Real Estate Securities

Tracks the performance of publicly traded equity REITs, real estate operating companies, and master limited partnerships

BofA Merrill Lynch Bond Indices

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has numerous bond indices that represent various bond markets and bond sectors