What is an Index? for some people, they may already be familiar with blockchain but don’t know what an index is in crypto assets, the explanation of the index is a system that measures the value of something that is different from the previous value or standard or other specified benchmark. It can also be described as a financial instrument that is used to represent a group of individual prices or data points.

Usually calculated as a single value of price and amount over a certain period, a useful tool for tracking the price of a specific asset or basket of assets.

In financial markets, indices are often based on a list of various stock prices and are usually used to track stock market performance, through a measure of change – acting as a small sample that represents a large part of the stock market as a whole. Each index establishes certain rules and methodologies, but ideally, variations in the index value should reflect a proportionate change in the stock. Therefore, a 5% change in a given index must represent a 5% change, on average, of all stock markets being considered in the calculations.

Examples are the FTSE 100 and the German DAX index. The FTSE 100 Index (Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index) is a stock index that measures the share of the London Stock Exchange, taking into account the top 100 companies by market capitalization. DAX (Deutscher Aktienindex) is a stock index calculated based on 30 large companies currently traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Index Funds

While it is not possible to invest or trade indices, index funds support individuals to directly use their funds based on index performance. For example, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF is an index fund that tracks the performance index of the S&P 500.