As part of my forthcoming portfolio strategy, I was trying to find information on the best S&P 500 Index funds. As you may or may not be aware, Vanguard created the first S&P 500 index fund in the 1970’s. An S&P 500 index fund aims at tracking the performance of the S&P 500, regarded as one of the best (if not the best) total market indexes out there.

Today most major brokerages have created their own index funds, each with different expenses and features. I was trying to use a mutual fund screener to help me choose which fund was best for me, but after using Morningstar, Yahoo! Finance, and Zacks, I wasn’t able to come up with anything – the only index fund features come with the Morningstar Premium Subscription ($125/yr). I was finally able to find a basic S&P 500 index fund screener at Reuters.com, and I’m presenting here the results of my filter:

S&P 500 Index Funds by Expense Ratio

There’s also a table of index funds here as well…
Index Fund table at Motley Fool

I’ve decided to go with the original, the Vanguard 500 Index. It has very low expenses of 0.18%, is the largest, and is among the most consistant of all index funds.

For more information about market indexes and the S&P 500 Index visit:

[1] “Index Investing” on Investopedia
[2] “The S&P 500 Index Fund” at Fool.com
[3] “The Construction of an Index” at Fool.com