A company must show it can make a profit before it becomes a candidate for the S&P 500. The last sentence in the above description highlights the single factor that sets the S&P 500 apart from other broad market indexes. company, have a market capitalization of at least USD 11.8 billion, be highly liquid, have a public float of at least 10% of its shares outstanding, and its most recent quarter's earnings and the sum of its trailing four consecutive quarters' earnings must be positive. To be eligible for S&P 500 index inclusion, a company should be a U.S. That means that the index also includes lesser-known companies, so long as they meet the criteria for index inclusion. While many of these companies may be household names, broad popular familiarity is not a requirement. The S&P 500 seeks to represent the leading companies in leading industries. S&P Global, the company that selects and maintains the S&P 500 index describes the index as follows: They are chosen by a committee whose goal is to choose a group of profitable large cap stocks that will be representative of the U.S. That index is a market cap weighted selection of 500 US stocks. SPY is an ETF that duplicates the holdings of the S&P 500 index. Basic Facts About the S&P 500 Index that SPY Follows Let's answer this question in a few steps. I was recently asked if the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF ( NYSEARCA: SPY) was a good choice for retirement portfolios.

Spy expense ratio