Benchmark Definitions

  • The Alerian MLP/Midstream Energy Index is a blend consisting of 100% Alerian MLP Index through December 31, 2019 and then 100% Alerian Midstream Energy Index thereafter. The Alerian MLP Index is a composite of the 50 most prominent energy Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). The index, which is calculated using a float-adjusted, capitalization-weighted methodology, is disseminated real-time on a price-return basis. The Alerian Midstream Energy Index is a broad-based composite of North American energy infrastructure companies.  The index is float-adjusted, capitalization-weighted, and rebalanced quarterly. Constituents earn the majority of their cash flow from midstream activities involving energy commodities.
  • The Bloomberg 1-10 Year Municipal Bond Index is a market value-weighted index which covers the short and intermediate components of the Barclays Municipal Bond Index—an unmanaged, market value-weighted index which covers the U.S. investment-grade tax-exempt bond market. The 1-10 Year Municipal Blend index tracks tax-exempt municipal General Obligation, Revenue, Insured, and Prerefunded bonds with a minimum $5 million par amount outstanding, issued as part of a transaction of at least $50 million, and with a remaining maturity from 1 up to (but not including) 12 years. The index includes reinvestment of income.
  • The Bloomberg 1-2 Year Municipal Bond Index is a market-value weighted index of municipal bonds with a remaining maturity of one to two years. It is an unmanaged index that tracks the performance of tax-exempt municipal bonds in the United States.
  • The Bloomberg 1-3 Month US Treasury Bill Index includes all publicly issued zero-coupon U.S. Treasury Bills that have a remaining maturity of less than 3 months and more than 1 month, are rated investment grade, and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value.
  • The Bloomberg US Treasury 1-3 Year Index measures US dollar-denominated, fixed-rate, nominal debt issued by the US Treasury with 1-2.999 years to maturity. Treasury bills are excluded by the maturity constraint, but are part of a separate Short Treasury Index. STRIPS are excluded from the index because their inclusion would result in double-counting.
  • The Bloomberg 1-5 Year Municipal Bond Index consists of a broad selection of investment grade general obligation and revenue municipal bonds of maturities ranging from one year to five years.
  • The Bloomberg Commodity Index is composed of futures contracts on physical commodities. Included in the index family are subindexes representing the major commodity sectors within the broad index: Energy, Petroleum, Precious Metals, Industrial Metals, Grains, Livestock, Softs, and Agriculture.
  • The Bloomberg Municipal Bond High Yield Index is an unmanaged index that tracks non-investment grade and non-rated municipal bonds.
  • The Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index represents securities that are US domestic, taxable, and dollar denominated. The index covers the US investment grade fixed rate bond market, with index components for government and corporate securities, mortgage pass-through securities, and asset-backed securities. These major sectors are subdivided into more specific indices that are calculated and reported on a regular basis.
  • The Bloomberg US Corporate High Yield Index measures the USD-denominated, high yield, fixed-rate corporate bond market. Securities are classified as high yield if the middle rating of Moody’s, Fitch and S&P is Ba1/BB+/BB+ or below.
  • The FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index is a free-float adjusted, market capitalization-weighted index of US equity REITs.
  • The HFRX Equity Hedge Index. Equity Hedge strategies maintain positions both long and short in primarily equity and equity derivative securities. A wide variety of investment processes can be employed to arrive at an investment decision, including both quantitative and fundamental techniques; strategies can be broadly diversified or narrowly focused on specific sectors and can range broadly in terms of levels of net exposure, leverage employed, holding period, concentrations of market capitalizations and valuation ranges of typical portfolios. Equity Hedge managers would typically maintain at least 50% and may in some cases be substantially entirely invested in equities, both long and short.
  • The HFRX Fixed Income – Credit Index includes strategies with exposure to credit across a broad continuum of credit sub-strategies, including Corporate, Sovereign, Distressed, Convertible, Asset Backed, Capital Structure Arbitrage, Multi-Strategy and other Relative Value and Event Driven sub-strategies. Investment thesis across all strategies is predicated on realization of a valuation discrepancy between the related credit instruments. Strategies may also include and utilize equity securities, credit derivatives, government fixed income, commodities, currencies or other hybrid securities.
  • The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index is designed to be representative of the overall composition of the hedge fund universe. It is comprised of all eligible hedge fund strategies; including but not limited to convertible arbitrage, distressed securities, equity hedge, equity market neutral, event driven, macro, merger arbitrage, and relative value arbitrage. The strategies are asset-weighted based on the distribution of assets in the hedge fund industry.
  • The JPM GBI-Emerging Markets Global Diversified Index is a market index that tracks the performance of government bonds in emerging markets. It’s a benchmark for emerging market debt and is designed to be investable.
  • The Morningstar LSTA US Leveraged Loan Index is a market-value weighted index that measures the performance of the US leveraged loan market. It’s a partnership between Morningstar and the Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA).
  • The MSCI All Country World Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed and emerging markets. As of May 27, 2010 the MSCI ACWI consisted of 45 country indices comprising 24 developed and 21 emerging market country indices. The developed market country indices included are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The emerging market country indices included are: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, and Turkey.
  • The MSCI ACWI Small Cap Index captures small cap representation across 23 Developed Markets (DM) and 24 Emerging Markets (EM) countries. With 5,993 constituents, the index covers about 14% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country.
  • The MSCI EAFE Index is a capitalization-weighted index that tracks the total return of common stocks in 21 developed-market countries within Europe, Australasia and the Far East.
  • The MSCI EAFE Small Cap Index is an equity index which captures small cap representation across Developed Markets countries around the world, excluding the US and Canada. The index covers approximately 14% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country.
  • The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance in the global emerging markets. As of June 2006, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index consisted of the following 25 emerging market country indices: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey.
  • The Nasdaq US Multi-Asset Diversified Income Index is designed to provide exposure to multiple asset segments, each selected to result in a consistent and high yield for the index. The Index is comprised of securities classified as US equities, US Real-Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), US preferred securities, US master-limited partnerships (MLPs) and a high-yield corporate debt Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF).
  • The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000 Index, which represents approximately 8% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index.
  • The Russell 3000 Index measures the performance of the 3,000 largest U.S. companies based on total market capitalization, which represents approximately 98% of the investable U.S. equity market.
  • The S&P 500 Index tracks the performance of 500 widely held, large-capitalization U.S. stocks.
  • The S&P Global Clean Energy Index is designed to measure the performance of companies in global clean energy-related businesses from both developed and emerging markets, with a target constituent count of 100.
  • The S&P Global Natural Resources Index includes 90 of the largest publicly-traded companies in natural resources and commodities businesses that meet specific investability requirements, offering investors diversified and investable equity exposure across 3 primary commodity-related sectors: agribusiness, energy, and metals & mining.
  • The 15% Bloomberg US Aggregate & 85% MSCI ACWI is a blend consisting of 15% Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index and then 85% MSCI All Country World Index.  The blend benchmark is rebalanced monthly.
  • The 60% Bloomberg US Aggregate & 40% MSCI ACWI is a blend consisting of 60% Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index and then 40% MSCI All Country World Index.  The blend benchmark is rebalanced monthly.

Indices have been selected for comparison purposes only.  Client account holdings may differ significantly from the securities in the indices and the volatility of the index may be materially different from client account performance.  You can not invest directly in an index.