Dow Jones Adds Four Indexes to RBP Family

Dow Jones Indexes announced the addition of four new indexes to its family of Dow Jones RBP Indexes.

The series of indexes includes three U.S. large-cap “style” indexes of growth and value stocks — the Dow Jones RBP U.S. Large-Cap Growth Index and the Dow Jones RBP U.S. Large-Cap Value Index — as well as an index that blends growth and value: the Dow Jones RBP U.S. Large-Cap Core Index. Also launched was the Dow Jones RBP U.S. Dividend Index, the first within the Dow Jones RBP Index family to utilize dividends to select and weight companies.  

According to the announcement, the Dow Jones RBP Index family (http://www.djindexes.com/rbp) is a series of quantitative strategy indexes offered by Dow Jones Indexes and Transparent Value LLC, a New York-based asset management and financial information services company.  

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Large and actively traded securities are selected to the indexes in part based on their RBP, or Required Business Performance, probabilities. These proprietary probabilities are calculated by taking a reverse discounted cash flow approach to indicate the likelihood that a public company will deliver the business performance necessary to support its current stock price.   

For information on the creation and maintenance of these indexes, see the Guide to the Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Indexes, available on the Dow Jones Indexes Web site at http://www.djindexes.com/totalstockmarket.

S&P Introducing New Versions of S&P 500

S&P Indices is launching two indexes designed to provide market participants with unique measuring tools for specific stock characteristics within the S&P 500.

The S&P 500 Low Volatility Index measures the performance of the 100 least volatile stocks in the S&P 500. The Index is designed to serve as a benchmark for low volatility or low variance strategies in the U.S. stock market, the company said. Constituents are weighted relative to the inverse of their corresponding volatility, with the least volatile stocks receiving the highest weights.  

The S&P 500 High Beta Index will measure the performance of the 100 constituents of the S&P 500 that are the most sensitive to changes in market returns. It is designed to serve as a benchmark for investors with a bullish strategic or tactical view of the U.S. stock market. Constituents are weighted in proportion to their market sensitivity, or beta, with the highest-beta stocks receiving the highest weights.  

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Both the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index and the S&P 500 High Beta Index will serve as the basis for future PowerShares ETFs.  

For more information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

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