Hedge funds posted disappointing returns in 2008, but the average hedge fund return of − 18. 65 % ( the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index return ) was far better than the returns generated by most assets other than cash or cash equivalents.

In a June 2010 article in The Economist, the argument is made that Index-tracking funds ( to which Goldman Sachs Commodity Index was linked ) did not cause the bubble.

Index funds are available from many investment managers.

Index funds capture asset classes in a low cost and tax efficient manner and are used to design balanced portfolios.

* The best investment advice you'll never get San Francisco Magazine article about the history and practice of Index funds, with commentary on mutual funds

The first retail index fund, First Index Investment Trust, was formed in 1976 by The Vanguard Group, headed by John Bogle ; it is now called the Vanguard 500 Index Fund and is one of the world's largest mutual funds, with more than $ 100 billion in assets as of January 31, 2011.

It has also attained perfect scores quarterly on the " Transparency Index for Sovereign wealth funds ", a measure of the openness of government-owned investment funds.

Many funds track national indexes ; for example, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF tracks the MSCI US Broad Market Index, and several funds track the S & P 500, both indexes for US stocks.

Other funds own stocks from many countries ; for example, Vanguard Total International Stock Index tracks the MSCI All Country World ex USA Investable Market Index, while the iShares MSCI EAFE Index tracks the MSCI EAFE Index, both " world ex-US " indexes.

Index funds had already existed for a few years, but were only available to institutions such as pension funds.

The Russell 1000 Index is tracked by several exchange-traded funds, such as the iShares Russell 1000 Index ()).

The creation of the FTSE ST Index Series was intended to facilitate the creation of financial products such as institutional and retail funds, exchange-traded funds ( ETFs ), derivatives contracts and other index-linked products.

Index tracking funds would then have to sell the shares of the surviving company.

If, at any time during the assignment pass, the compiler finds that there are no more index words available for assignment, the warning message `` No More Index Words Available '' will be placed in the object program listing, the table will be altered to show that index words 1 through 96 are available, and the assignment will continue as before.

The results of this work was the report A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America's Collections, which was published in December 2005 and concluded that immediate action is needed to prevent the loss of 190 million artifacts that are in need of conservation treatment.

The complete text of all the documents are online and searchable ; The Index is also online Archived September 28, 2010.

While the region's economy shows high disparities with regard to income, all Central European countries are listed by the Human Development Index as " very high development " countries.

When the heat release oscillations are in phase with the pressure oscillations, the Rayleigh Index is positive and the magnitude of the thermo acoustic instability is maximised.

The PHP language has PECL and PEAR, Python has a PyPI ( Python Package Index ) repository, Ruby has RubyGems, Lua has LuaRocks, Haskell has Hackage and an associated installer / make clone cabal ; but none of these are as large as the CPAN.

The following countries are categorized by the Democracy Index 2011 as Full democracy:

* Co-ordinates are obtained from Uranometria Chart Index and Skyview.

The world's largest derivatives exchanges ( by number of transactions ) are the Korea Exchange ( which lists KOSPI Index Futures & Options ), Eurex ( which lists a wide range of European products such as interest rate & index products ), and CME Group ( made up of the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade and the 2008 acquisition of the New York Mercantile Exchange ).

Index fossils ( also known as guide fossils, indicator fossils or zone fossils ) are fossils used to define and identify geologic periods ( or faunal stages ).

Others are The Ass with a Burden of Salt ( Perry Index 180 ) and The Satyr and the Traveller.

There are approximately 400 brightener types listed in the Color Index, but less than 90 are actually produced commercially and only a handful are commercially important.

: Indices: These are quite apart from the above, their use is for mathematical formalism, see Index notation.

Pasta has a low Glycemic Index, therefore its carbohydrates are slowly absorbed.

Three kinds of information are needed to calculate a Pearl Index for a particular study:

There are two calculation methods for determining the Pearl Index:

No political parties or national elections are permitted and according to The Economist's 2010 Democracy Index, the Saudi government is the seventh most authoritarian regime from among the 167 countries rated.

Sri Lanka has a relatively high Human Development Index with a high literacy rate ( 90. 1 %) which are the result of universal education policies and widespread healthcare.

Sri Lanka's Human Development Index and literacy rate are among the highest in the South Asian region, and infant mortality is among the lowest.

Volcanic eruptions are classified using the Volcanic Explosivity Index, or VEI.

; Index error: This occurs when the index and horizon mirrors are not parallel to each other when the index arm is set to zero.

All four nations in the Visegrád Group are high income countries with a very high Human Development Index.

Perhaps the most commonly used international measure of development is the Human Development Index ( HDI ), which combines measures of life expectancy, education, and standard of living, in an attempt to quantify the options available to individuals within a given society.

Although not as complex as other measures, and now essentially replaced by the Human Development Index, the PQLI is notable for Morris's attempt to show a " less fatalistic pessimistic picture " by focussing on three areas where global quality of life was generally improving at the time, and ignoring Gross National Product and other possible indicators that were not improving.

The Physical Quality of Life Index ( PQLI ) is an attempt to measure the quality of life or well-being of a country.

American Thoroughbred races are run at a wide variety of distances, most commonly from ; with this in mind, breeders of Thoroughbred race horses attempt to breed horses that excel at a particular distance ( see Dosage Index ).

Unlike in Hong Kong, no attempt was made to directly intervene in the capital markets and the Straits Times Index was allowed to drop 60 %.

The annual surveys Economic Freedom of the World ( EFW ) and Index of Economic Freedom ( IEF ) are two indices which attempt to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations.

The Himalayan Index lists only one other attempt on Melungtse, a failed attempt via the North Face in 1999.

The chapter on " New Indicators " describes attempts to replace GNP with broader measures such as the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare ( ISEW ) that attempt to account for full environmental costs.

The Commitment to Development Index published annually by the Center for Global Development is one such attempt to look at donor country policies toward the developing world and move beyond simple comparisons of aid given.

Therefore, the definition and measurement of poverty in general must extend beyond measurements like per capita GDP, which tools such as the Human Development Index attempt to accomplish.

After, the crew heads to Vickensburg where they attempt to recruit Elias, the Governor's son and the Index finger who should point the way to the Devil's Eye.