Total U.S. stock market:
Wilshire 5000 once was made up of 5,000 large-, medium-, and small-company stocks. It has since grown to 7,000 stocks and is the broadest of all U.S. stock market indexes.

Large U.S. company stocks
Standard & Poor's 500 tracks 500 of the most widely held domestic large-company stocks, which represent about 70 percent of the U.S. stock market's total value.

Dow Jones industrial average tracks 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks. It's the oldest and most widely quoted of all market indicators, but shouldn't be considered as representative of the entire stock market.

Schwab 1000 is made up of 1,000 of the largest domestic companies as measured by market capitalization (number of outstanding shares multiplied by the current share price). It tracks large- and medium-size stocks.

Medium U.S. company stocks
Wilshire 4500 tracks the fortunes of 6,500 medium- and small-company stocks, and excludes large stocks that make up the S&P 500.

S&P MidCap 400 benchmarks 400 medium-size U.S. company stocks.

Small U.S. company stocks
Russell 2000 follows the performance of 2,000 small-company stocks.

S&P SmallCap 600 tracks 600 small-company domestic stocks.

Wilshire Small Cap Index measures 1,750 small-company domestic stocks.

Schwab Small Cap Index measures 1,000 small-company domestic stocks.

U.S. Bonds
Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index measures 6,600 taxable government, investment-grade corporate, and mortgage-backed securities.

International stocks
Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe, Australasia, Far East follows 1,000 stocks traded in Europe and the Pacific Rim.

Morgan Stanley Capital International EMF consists of stocks from 26 emerging-market countries in Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim.

Schwab International Index tracks the 350 largest publicly traded companies in developed securities markets.

*March/April 2000 "Family Money Magazine"