Researching Investments

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has become a benchmark for gauging the health of the economy and stock market. It is the most commonly cited index even with other, more comprehensive...

The forex market is one of the most heavily traded markets in the world. Any nation state can issue and trade currency; however, there are only a few major currencies which make up the bulk of...

Beta is a figure used to judge the risk of a particular stock by comparing its price-volatility to that of a chosen benchmark. Beta values range from 0 to 1, with a value of 1 indicating the...

An annuity is an agreement between a person and an insurance company in which the person receives a lump sum payment now or in the future, or a series of payments over time, in exchange for the...

Foreign investments refer to any investment that is located outside the United States. Investors look for foreign investments because they believe that returns might be better due to higher growth...

E-mini contracts are futures contracts offered by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange that track several of the major stock indexes. The e-mini futures are smaller contracts than their standard...

All investors want to earn a return on their money, and one major choice an investor faces is deciding between an active and passive money management strategy. These two investment approaches are...

An indexed annuity is an investment product that provides a flow of payments to a buyer in return for a lump sum or series of lump sum payments. The flow of payments for an indexed annuity has a...

The BTK index is a collection of biotechnology stocks, most of which trade on the American Stock Exchange. Biotechnology is one of the most promising industries of the 21st century. It is from...

Equity-indexed annuities function in the same way as other annuities, with some special considerations regarding the type of sub-account in which the money is invested. It is a hybrid between a...

Stock index prices are statistically combined groups of stocks that represent a certain asset class of investment. Stock index futures track the stock index. Stock index futures are not...

The original Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipt, or SPDR, was an investment product launched in 1993 that tracked the S&P 500 stock index. It trades on the American Stock Exchange under...

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) have made commodity investing accessible to individual investors. Commodities investing offers diversification, low correlation to...