The U.S Stock Market: More Than Just The S&P 500

In this report we look at the performance and composition differences among the S&P 500, Russell 2000 and Nasdaq-100 indexes. Although all three indexes represent the performance of primarily US stocks, they vary in return as well as realized and expected volatility. After offering up a high-level comparison of each index, we cover the variety of ways that derivatives and exchange-traded funds can be used to gain exposure or hedge risk associated with each index.