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Alinear chart of the S&P 500 day by day closing values from January 3, 1950 to February 19, 2016Alogarithmic chart of the S&P 500 index daily closing values from January 3, 1950 to February 19, 2016.
TheStandard and Poor's 500,[1] or sometimes known as theS&P 500,[2] issomething that measures the stock market, looking at how well 500 of the largest companies listed onstock exchanges in the United States are doing. It is one of the most commonly used ways of looking at stocks for these companies. There is over $4.6 trillion invested in the companies that use how well companies are doing to know when to invest.[1]
Although the S&P 500 includes only companies that are available to be sold in stocks in the United States, companies in the S&P 500 on average only get 72% of their money from the United States.[5]
It is associated with manyticker symbols, including: ^GSPC,[7] INX,[8] and $SPX, but this changes by market or website.[9] The index value is updated every 15 seconds, or 1,559 times per trading day, with price updates updated with help fromReuters.[10]
