News Links & Databases
Morningstar.com – Morningstar provides excellent news, information and a robust database on mutual funds and ETFs as part of their comprehensive coverage of the mutual fund universe.
IndexUniverse.com – A comprehensive site on index fund investing that included breaking industry news, commentary, and database of index funds and ETFs.
Major Fund Providers
Vanguard – The Vanguard Group is a leader in low-cost mutual funds. Besides one of the best places to shop for index funds and ETFs, Vanguard’s Education, Planning, and Advice section is one of the best on the web. There is a lot of good information in the “Plain Talk Library”.
Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) - DFA began operations in 1981 to provide institutional investors with investment vehicles based on academic research. Since its inception in 1981, DFA has had close ties to many leading financial economists, including Eugene Fama, Ken French, Don Keim, and Nobel Laureates Myron Scholes and the late Merton Miller.
BlackRock – iShares are the world’s most extensive family of Exchange-traded Funds (ETFs). iShares are liquid, easy to use, provide diversification, market tracking, and low expenses.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Sites
Beginners’ Guide to Asset Allocation, Diversification, and Rebalancing
http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/assetallocation.htm
Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)
http://www.sec.gov/answers/etf.htm
Mutual Fund Fees and Expenses
http://www.sec.gov/answers/mffees.htm
Major Index Providers
MSCI - MSCI is a leading provider of index data on the U.S. equity market. They provide many popular growth and value index fund benchmarks.
Standard & Poors (S&P) – S&P offers comprehensive analysis and commentary on all their global market indexes. S&P indexes are the leader in the amount of assets managed.
Wilshire Associates – Wilshire offers a lot of great information on the markets and a wonderful historic section featuring charts that include major economic and world events. Wilshire indexes are considered the most complete U.S. equity benchmarks covering over 6,500 U.S. companies.
Russell Investments – Comprehensive information about all the Russell Indexes and methodology. The Russell 2000 index is a popular benchmark for small cap investors.
Dow Jones Indexes – Dow Jones Indexes is a leading full-service index provider that develops, maintains and licenses indexes for use as benchmarks and as the basis of investment products. Best-known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes offers more than 130,000 equity indexes as well as fixed-income and alternative indexes.
