Even folks new to investing have probably heard someone mention index funds. But what are they and how do they work? This article explores index funds in detail to help you understand how they work, ...

Index funds are a type of mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) that aims to replicate the performance of a specific market index such as the S&P 500. Unlike actively managed funds, where fund ...

Today’s column addresses three questions. First, to what extent do the portfolios of index funds behave differently from benchmarks that they emulate? That is, before expenses are considered, how ...

In 1976, Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, created the first index fund to provide a low-cost investing method that valued the investor's interest over the company's. Index funds track the ...

When it comes to investing your retirement or college funds for the long term, few principles are now as widely accepted as the merits of low-cost index funds. Most big investment firms have now ...

Annuities may seem complex, largely due to the fact that there are a variety of product types and options. On one side of the spectrum lie high-fee, high-risk, high-potential-gain variable annuities, ...

When you buy shares in an index fund — which is a selection of assets that track a certain index — you get the diversification of all those different stocks, right? Kind of. With the rise in ...

Lots of investors sell various holdings out of impatience or due to satisfaction with a certain return. But with many great companies, hanging on for several years is the thing to do. Index funds ...