IN THIS LIST

South Africa: Indexation Masterclass

Navigating Global Markets with the S&P World Index

An Index-Based Approach to Tax-Advantaged Long/Short

Surveying U.S. Markets: Sectors, Geopolitics and Index-Based Strategies

The Market Measure: June 2025

Index TV - Jul 10, 2025

South Africa: Indexation Masterclass

Length 40:18

Length 40:18

How is the indexing landscape evolving in South Africa and what’s driving rising demand for bespoke and thematic indices? S&P DJI’s Len Jordaan joins ETFSA’s Gareth Stobie for a closer look at how index providers and ETF platforms are responding to global trends and local constraints in this Asset TV Masterclass.

Index TV - Jul 10, 2025

Navigating Global Markets with the S&P World Index

Length 5:53

Length 5:53

What sets the S&P World Index apart when it comes to tracking developed markets around the globe? Explore how extensive coverage, historical consistency, transparency and adaptability are helping global investors make more informed decisions as they seek to uncover opportunities and navigate risks across economic cycles.

[TRANSCRIPT]

Navigating Global Markets with the S&P World Index

In today’s interconnected financial landscape, investors seek comprehensive tools to effectively navigate global markets. The S&P World Index provides a broad measure of equity performance across developed markets, serving as a valuable benchmark for market analysis and a potential blueprint for financial products requiring broad coverage.

What is the S&P World Index?

The S&P World Index tracks the performance of large- and mid-cap stocks across 24 developed markets, encompassing over 1,500 companies. The index is designed to represent the overall market performance of developed economies, offering insights into both country- and sector-specific trends. This broad coverage tracks approximately 85% of each country’s available market capitalization, providing a thorough representation of the potential developed market opportunity set.

What is the historical significance of the index, and how is it constructed?

The S&P World Index, introduced in 2009, has back-tested data available since July 1989 and is constructed on the robust foundation of the S&P Global Broad Market Index, or BMI, which includes nearly 15,000 stocks from around the world. Launched in 1989 as the first float-adjusted benchmark, the S&P Global BMI set the standard for modern index construction by excluding locked-in shares not freely available to investors. With over $1.2 trillion in benchmarked assets linked to the index, the S&P Global BMI has become an integral part of global market analysis. The S&P World Index builds on that legacy.

Let’s take a look inside the index and its sector and style diversification.

The S&P World Index covers over 350 subindices categorized by GICS sector, style and currency. This granularity enables market participants to analyze and target specific segments within developed markets, and better assess the relative performance of their strategies. The GICS classification provides a framework for understanding how industries evolve and perform within developed economies, supporting precise portfolio diversification. With data extending over several economic cycles, the S&P World Index provides a consistent universe for historical market analysis and back-testing investment strategies.

How does the index incorporate sustainability screens?

Recognizing the growing importance of sustainable investing, the S&P World Index family includes versions that incorporate sustainability considerations. These indices leverage S&P Global’s comprehensive sustainability datasets, allowing market participants to integrate sustainability-related considerations, like measuring the relative performance of companies from a carbon emissions to revenue viewpoint into their investment processes.

Who governs and calculates the index?

S&P DJI has always prioritized transparency, independence and integrity. We adhere to industry best practices and evolving regional regulatory standards, ensuring the S&P World Index remains a reliable and accurate benchmark for global investors. The index methodology is reviewed regularly by an independent oversight committee, ensuring it evolves alongside market dynamics while maintaining its foundational principles.

What are some practical applications of the index?

The S&P World Index serves multiple functions, including:

Performance measurement and benchmarking. Fund managers can use it to compare their portfolios against a comprehensive global standard.

Product development. The index’s extensive coverage supports the creation of financial products like ETFs, mutual funds, futures and options that require broad market exposure.

Risk management. By offering insights into market trends and sector performance, the index supports strategies for managing portfolio risk in a dynamic environment.

In an era where global market dynamics are increasingly complex, the S&P World Index offers investors a robust tool for comprehensive market analysis and informed decision-making. The index’s adaptability to global investment trends and its focus on transparency make it a valuable resource for understanding and navigating developed markets. Its extensive coverage, historical consistency and adaptability to sustainable investing needs make it an essential component in the toolkit of today’s global investor.

Want to learn more about the S&P World Index? Visit us at the link below.

spglobal.com/spdji/sp-world-index

Index TV - Jul 08, 2025

An Index-Based Approach to Tax-Advantaged Long/Short

Length 9:32

Length 9:32

What’s the role of indices in long/short tax-advantaged strategies? Brooklyn Investment Group’s Erkko Etula joins S&P DJI’s Brandon Hass and Rupert Watts to explore how indices like the S&P 500 130/30 Quality Index are helping address concentration risk and demand for customization inclusive of long-term tax objectives via transparent design.

[TRANSCRIPT]

Brandon Hass:

How are indices helping market participants address demand for customization, inclusive of long-term tax objectives via transparent design? Hello, my name is Brandon Hass, Managing Director and Head of Direct Indexing and Model Portfolios at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Joining me today to discuss the role of indices in long/short tax-advantaged strategies are Rupert Watts, Head of Factors and Dividends at S&P Dow Jones Indices, and Erkko Etula, Co-Founder and CEO of Brooklyn Investment Group. Thank you both for joining me today.

Rupert Watts:

Pleased to be here.

Erkko Etula:

Thanks for having us.

Brandon Hass:

Sure. So, Rupert, let's start with a question for you. So can you introduce the S&P 500 130/30 Quality Index highlighting things like the construction, the constituent selection, and the mechanics of the long/short approach?

Rupert Watts:

Sure, so the S&P 500 130/30 Quality Index is essentially an index of indices, combining both a long index and a short index. The long index is given a leveraged weight of 130%, whereas the short index is given a negative 30% weight to offset the leveraged position on the long and bring down the net exposure to 100%.

Now, the long index tracks the top 100 companies from the S&P 500 as ranked by the S&P Quality Score, whereas the short index tracks the 100 companies that are lowest ranked by the quality score. And basically, the S&P Quality Score is a composite score and averages out three key metrics, a return on equity, which is a profitability metric, the leverage ratio, which looks at total debt to book value, and then the accruals ratio, which essentially assesses earnings quality.

So, by taking a leveraged position in the 100 companies ranking highly on the quality score, you're taking enhanced exposure to high quality companies. And then on the short leg with the 30% weights, with the lowest ranked companies, you're basically positioning for their underperformance and helping sort of bring down the overall risk of the index.

Brandon Hass:

Makes sense. Thank you.

And Erkko, what are some of the use cases of a long/short strategy like a 130/30 approach?

Erkko Etula:

So it all basically starts from the urgency to generate tax losses, right? So think about an entrepreneur selling their company this calendar year, how can they generate realized capital losses to help offset some of the gains from that sale of the company, right? So that's one use case, literally rapid generation of realized losses.

The second use case is diversification out of concentrated stock positions, right? So think about your Nvidia or your Apple stock that has rallied for a long time. The market value is very far from the cost basis for many investors. How do you diversify out of that concentration risk without paying taxes, or at least reducing the tax bill, and in that case again you can put a long/short extension on top of that Apple or Nvidia stock to generate those tax losses, and those tax losses are then used against the gains as you're selling down that concentrated stock.

And then the third use case is what I would call ossified portfolios, so basically portfolios that have been in tax-loss harvesting programs that frankly just held for a long time. So again, the market values of the individual stocks are very far away from the cost basis, so no matter how much market volatility that you get, you're not going to be able to do tax-loss harvesting to a great extent. So, a 130/30 approach can help rejuvenate those types of portfolios.

Brandon Hass:

Very interesting. Well, thank you both. Lots of good facts there.

And so as we think about the construction and some of the use cases, let's talk a little bit about index performance. How has the index performed historically and what role has the quality factor specifically played?

Rupert Watts:

Sure, so historically, the index has really sort of performed in-line with what you would expect from a quality factor strategy, namely, improved risk-adjusted return, defensive qualities and diversification benefits versus broad benchmarks like the S&P 500. And really the benefits that you would expect from taking an outsized position in high quality companies that tend to be strong fundamentals and relatively higher profitability. Over the long term, which does include back-tested performance, the index has generated an annualized return of 14.4%, which represents a little over 3% annualized outperformance relative to the benchmark, the S&P 500. And that return outperformance has actually come with slightly lower volatility and a better downside capture.

The 130/30 structure as well also gives you enhanced characteristics versus the unlevered S&P 500 Quality Index, over the same period has outperformed the S&P 500 Quality Index by about 1.2% annualized and again, done so with slightly lower volatility.

Brandon Hass:

Wow, those are compelling statistics, appreciate that. And Erkko, how does a long/short tax-advantaged strategy work?

Erkko Etula:

So, couple of things there. First of all what Rupert mentioned in terms of the outperformance of the stock selection, that is very important because in order to construct a long/short strategy for the purposes of tax-loss harvesting, you also need to have the economic substance for the stock selection part. Meaning there should be expected excess returns that come from the stock selection component.

Now, let's think about how this actually works in practice and why it helps generate higher tax losses over time. So there are two things at play there.

First, you can expand the size of the portfolio by putting those long and short extensions on your collateral, right? And so that basically just increases the volume of the portfolio for the purposes of tax-loss harvesting so it's almost analogous to adding new cash in the portfolio in the sense that you get fresh cost basis for the stocks in the long and the short legs. And then the second part which is unique to these 130/30 and 150/50 strategies is the fact that you have the negative exposures through the short leg so again the stocks that were short in the short part of the portfolio are now typically negatively correlated to the market. So the drawbacks of the long-only strategies, where again the market values run away from the cost basis, do not exist to the similar extent in the long/short strategies because as markets generally tend to rally, the short leg of the portfolio helps generate those tax losses.

Brandon Hass:

Yeah, it's really interesting. Let's stick with the stock selection process, for these strategies, why would you select the S&P 500 130/30 Quality Index to underlie the strategy itself?

Erkko Etula:

So, if you think about the various different stock selection methods, you can think about a continuum of techniques from index-like techniques all the way to what I would call pure alpha techniques and everything in between. So the conversation is very similar to the conversation about active versus passive, right, for typical long-only equity managers. Now the advantages of going with an index-based approach stem from the fact that it is fully transparent, extremely well researched, so the rules are extremely clear as to why certain stocks are in the long portfolio versus the short portfolio. And also you can gain low tracking error when you put a tax-loss harvesting overlay on it. So basically for investors that are looking for that full transparency as well as the low tracking error, the index-based approach is the way to go.

Brandon Hass:

Fantastic. Thank you both very much for your insights today. To learn more about the S&P 500 130/30 Quality Index, visit us at the link below. Thank you.

spglobal.com/spdji

Index TV - Jun 26, 2025

Surveying U.S. Markets: Sectors, Geopolitics and Index-Based Strategies

Length 04:46

Length 04:46

How do global investors use the S&P 500 to better understand the performance and potential opportunity set in U.S. equity markets? S&P DJI’s Tim Edwards joins GCMA’s Michael Grifferty for a closer look at the role of the S&P 500 ecosystem in the global economy and how market participants are using the index icon to make more informed decisions.

[TRANSCRIPT]

Surveying U.S. Markets: Sectors, Geopolitics and Index-Based Strategies

Michael Grifferty:

Welcome to our session on Surveying U.S. Markets: Sectors, Geopolitics and Index-Based Strategies. This is Michael Grifferty from The Gulf Capital Market Association. We're thrilled to have with us Tim Edwards, Ph.D. To start, could you take us through an overview of the current U.S. market landscape?

Tim Edwards:

Yeah, absolutely. Look, the important thing to bear in mind about the U.S., first of all, is that we are speaking today after an extended period of extraordinary performance from the U.S. equity markets. That extraordinary performance has benefited many investors. It's meant that the U.S. equity markets overall have come to play an increasingly important role in investors' portfolios, but the world has been changing. We've seen a bit more volatility and in particular we've seen different parts of the equity market struggle to take leadership. So, where we are today, we've had very strong performance that's led to some pretty stretch valuations that may well continue or those valuations may be well justified by future earnings, but we are starting to see different parts of the market competing for leadership.

Michael Grifferty:

How have geopolitical events, including elections, policy changes, helped shape market dynamics, historically and how have they influenced development and application of index-based strategies globally?

Tim Edwards:

Well, at S&P Dow Jones Indices we have the benefit of an extraordinarily long history, rich data to analyze, and I'll share with you two observations. The first is that if you look over the very long term, which party holds the presidency, the Senate, Congress, on average, doesn't seem to make an enormous amount of difference to the overall market.

However, policy, political whims do impact different industries and sectors very differently. For those who are more of an active market participation, or an active frame of mind, that means potentially looking at different sectors and industries to benefit, from what you see or perceive to be the future path. For other investors, it actually emphasizes the potential benefit of diversification. If you're not sure which part of the market will do best or worst, a diversified approach can ensure participation in the future leaders.

Michael Grifferty:

Could you discuss why and how the S&P 500 matters and why global investors use it to access the U.S. market?

Tim Edwards:

The S&P 500 is one of the world's most famous benchmarks, and it is a shorthand for how, the U.S. stock market is doing. You know, how did Wall Street do yesterday? Well, how did the S&P 500 perform? So it's useful as a piece of data, but from an investment perspective, what we've seen over the decades is, first of all, it's a benchmark that's quite hard to beat. It's diversified, it represents the whole market, and the U.S. equity market is a very well-developed market full of very smart people. It's hard to beat and the data shows that over the long term, very few strategies do actually manage to keep up with the benchmark.

The conclusion that some people have drawn is that therefore an index-based approach may be suitable as a long-term investment strategy. More importantly, or perhaps for some more importantly, the S&P 500 underlies an ecosystem of products that include funds, ETFs, futures, options, and trading in those associated vehicles, which happens almost 24 hours a day, in many markets around the world, enables investors to get in, get out, when they want to, and I think, in times of uncertainty, in times of volatility, one of the things that's super important to many investors is the ability to access liquidity, and the S&P 500 is because of this broad ecosystem, supports investors around the world to make decisions quickly and to execute efficiently.

Michael Grifferty:

Very insightful, thank you very much for joining us, Tim.

Tim Edwards:

Thank you.

Index TV - Jun 23, 2025

The Market Measure: June 2025

Length 5:00

Length 5:00

Review a resurgent S&P 500, check in on the performance of trend-following equities, dig into two factor indices—the S&P 500 High Beta Index and S&P 500 Low Volatility Index—that took a very different route to the same destination, make a detour for a look at the performance of select international equities and find out what VIX is telling us about the coming summer.

[TRANSCRIPT]

Ben Vörös:

Hello, I’m Ben Vörös,

Dasha Selivanova:

and I'm Dasha Selivanova.

Ben Vörös:

Coming up, we review a resurgent S&P 500 and its place on the global leaderboard. Check in on the performance of trend-following equities, dig into two factor indices that took a very different route to the same destination and find out what VIX is telling us about the coming summer.

At the time of recording, the blue-chip benchmark has poked its head back above 6,000 and currently sits just around 2% below the last record high observed on February 19, 2025.

Sentiment may have played its part, but corporate earnings have also been supportive. As we approach the end of the second quarter, the proportion of S&P 500 constituents beating earnings estimates in their quarterly reports stands at 77%, above the long-term average of 73%.

Dasha Selivanova:

While blue chips moved firmly in the black year-to-date, mid and small caps are still underwater. Both the S&P MidCap 400 and the S&P SmallCap 600 extended their Q1 underperformance against the S&P 500 in Q2. Year-to-date, the S&P MidCap 400 is down 2% and the S&P SmallCap 600 is down 5%, lagging the S&P 500 by 5% and 8%, respectively.

The underperformance of smaller firms was uniform across sectors, with all small-cap sectors and 10 of 11 mid-cap sectors lagging the large-cap ones. Mid-cap Utilities was the only outlier; it has outperformed its large-cap counterpart by 3%.

The best-performing factor by far this year has been Momentum, and the S&P 500 Momentum Index has continued to power ahead, outperforming its parent index by 10% so far in 2025. Part of that was due to increasing valuations, but another part was down to fundamentals. As this chart shows, although the trailing average P/E ratio of constituents in the S&P 500 Momentum Index is today slightly higher than that of The 500™, this margin has not widened nearly to the same degree that the factor itself has outperformed. In simple terms, Momentum outperformance was not just a function of its constituents becoming more expensive.

Ben Vörös:

Speaking of divergences, two other factor indices, the S&P 500 High Beta and the S&P 500 Low Volatility, are both 2% ahead of the S&P 500 so far in 2025. They took very different paths to get there. Having lagged the S&P 500 by 10% between the end of 2024 and early April this year, High Beta was the best performing among our reported S&P 500 factors this quarter.

Meanwhile, the star performer of Q1, Low Volatility, has given back some of its relative winnings.

Sectors go a long way toward explaining the divergence. Information Technology, this quarter's best performing sector, is currently the largest overweight in the S&P 500 High Beta Index, and it is simultaneously the largest underweight in Low Volatility. Conversely, Consumer Staples, which was one of this quarter’s sector laggards, is a large overweight in Low Volatility and a large underweight in High Beta.

Meanwhile, the outperformance of international equities relative to the U.S. has continued. The S&P Europe 350 Index, which outperformed the S&P 500 by 15% in USD in Q1, leads the U.S. benchmark by another 3% so far in Q2. The S&P Latin America 40 is also having a good quarter, up by 11% and the best performing among our major international regions.

It has a 25% total return in USD so far in 2025.

Will the calm we've seen in the past few weeks persist through the summer or should you have sold in May and gone away? The equity derivatives markets are indicating signs of confidence or perhaps complacency.

VIX, which measures the implied volatility of the S&P 500 for the next 30 days, has been firmly below 20 since the end of May.

The index was recording levels over 50 as recently as early April.

It may be worthwhile to be ready for some bumps on the road. With summer around the corner, liquidity may be lower as the heads of trading desks take their vacations, and I would not rule out some holiday jitters. Volatility is currently down, but if it resurfaces, diversification across sectors, factors and geographies can be a powerful tool that may deliver a smoother ride.

And that's it from us.

Dasha Selivanova:

You've been watching

Ben Vörös:

The Market Measure.

S&P Global Offerings

Market Intelligence

Ratings

Energy

S&P Dow Jones Indices

Mobility

Featured Topics

Featured Products

S&P Capital IQ Pro

S&P Global Energy Core

S&P Global ESG Scores

AutoCreditInsight

Ratings360

SPICE: The Index Source for ESG Data

Events

Careers

Our Services

Our Services

Data & Index Licensing

Data Delivery Platforms

Private Investment Benchmarks

Investment Themes

U.S. Core

Fixed Income

Factors

Thematics

Professional Resources

Wealth Managers

Insurance

Institutional Investor

Defined Contribution

Equity

Fixed Income

Commodities

Multi-Asset

Private Markets

Sustainability

Dividends & Factors

Thematics

Digital Assets

Indicators

Other Strategies

By Region

Our Exchange Relationships

North America

Latin America

EMEA

Asia Pacific

Research & Insights

Research

Education

Performance Reports

SPIVA

Investment Themes

Blog

Events & Webinars

Index TV

Education

Education

Our Education Partnerships

Index Literacy: An Investor's Guide to Indices

VIX: A Primer on the Volatility Gauge

Performance Reports

View All

Index Dashboards

Quarterly Reports

Global Daily Index Dashboard

SPIVA®

SPIVA Data

About SPIVA

SPIVA Library

Investment Themes

Events & Webinars

In-Person Events

Webinars

Webinars on Demand

Governance

Regulatory Information

Methodologies

Consultations