
There are a variety of investment vehicles that can be used to make your money work for you. They include stocks, bonds, equity funds, index funds or an equity index fund. An equity index fund is the combination of an equity fund and an index fund.
Equity Fund
An equity fund is a type of mutual fund that invests primarily in stocks. Equity funds are either actively managed (the fund manager makes specific investments with the goal of outperforming an index), or passively managed (the fund manager makes as few transactions as possible in order to minimize transaction costs).
Index Fund
An index fund is a type of mutual fund that seeks to achieve the same rate of return as a particular market index, like the Standard & Poor’s 500 index or Dow Jones Industrial Average. An index fund is passively managed; the fund manager makes as few transactions as possible, and in some funds, the investment holdings are automatically selected.
Investment Goal
The goal of an equity index fund, like a traditional index fund, is to achieve the same rate of return as a particular market index. What separates an equity index fund from a traditional index fund is that it is primarily made up of stocks.
Strategy
The investment strategy of an equity index fund is to either hold all of the stocks in the index fund it hopes to replicate the returns on, in the exact same proportions as that index fund, or to invest in stocks that are representative of that index fund.
Benefits
Because equity index funds are partly index funds, they have fewer transaction costs and are less expensive to manage than tradition mutual funds.
References
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Market Indices." Accessed July 21, 2020.
- State Street Global Advisors. "SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust," Download "Daily." Accessed July 21, 2020.
- S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index - Quick Facts." Accessed July 21, 2020.
- Schwab. “Schwab Total Stock Market Index Fund,” Download “SWTSX FundHoldings 2020-06-30.” Accessed July 21, 2020.
- Morningstar. "How'd Active Funds Do in 2019? So-So." Accessed July 21, 2020.
- Investor.gov. "Index Fund." Accessed July 21, 2020.
- IRS. "Topic No. 409 Capital Gains and Losses." Accessed July 21, 2020.