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femto 11 hours ago

Why can't an index fund compute and track their own objective index, thus ignoring any distortion introduced by the Nasdaq?

aloha2436 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They don't target something else because they wouldn't be an index fund, that's just a passive fund with their own published strategy. Those exist but aren't as popular, the appeal of index funds is that you're just getting "the market" and "the market" is measured by the index. Public indexes are supposed to be lower-cost and less manipulable, but that was before they got large enough to "wag the dog," which is the ultimate point of the article.

tverbeure 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because when I buy QQQ expect it to track the Nasdaq-100, not something else.

bagacrap 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Vast majority of index funds do not track NASDAQ 100.

wredcoll 9 hours ago | parent [-]

This is the detail I'd really like to know more about

bagacrap 9 hours ago | parent [-]

The top 3 most popular index fund ETFs track S&P500, which doesn't really pull this kind of shenanigan. Only QQQ tracks the NASDAQ 100 and it's in 5th place by assets under management.

You should probably read a book about index investing if you are going to invest.

nighthawk454 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah, but the S&P500 is hugely concentrated in MAG7, which are all Nasdaq listed. So when they all get sold to buy SpaceX, you can bet your butt something's gonna happen to a S&P500 ETF.

7 hours ago | parent [-]
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