The S&P 500 is the market’s barometer for the top 500 U.S.-listed stocks trading. For the Fourth of July, why not take a moment to think about investing in your country’s well-being and capitalistic pride? That is, when the trend returns.
The S&P 500 index is a good way to measure the health of the U.S. economy, since it tracks the 500 largest corporations trading in the United States. in fact, the original ETF to market in 1993 was the SPDRs (NYSEArca: SPY) which is the largest fund trading of them all. [How to Play the S&P 500 with ETFs.]
Another way to get a pure U.S. company share play is by investing in Rydex S&P Equal Weight ETF (NYSEArca: RSP) which has nearly identical holdings to the S&P 500, but gives an equal weighting to each individual stock, 0.20% to each of the 500 stocks. [The Equal Weight ETF Pulls Its Weight.]