# S&P 500

*Saving & Investing — Finicade finance glossary*

The S&P 500 tracks roughly 500 large US companies weighted by market value, and it is the default meaning of 'the market' in American finance. Membership is decided by a committee against liquidity and profitability rules, not purely by size. Its concentration is often underappreciated: the largest ten holdings have at times exceeded a third of the index, so an S&P 500 fund is diversified across sectors but heavily exposed to a few very large firms.

**Also known as:** S&P 500, SPX, S and P 500, the S&P

**Related terms:** [Market Index](https://finicade.com/glossary/market-index), [Index Fund](https://finicade.com/glossary/index-fund), [Market Capitalization](https://finicade.com/glossary/market-capitalization), [ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund)](https://finicade.com/glossary/etf), [Beta](https://finicade.com/glossary/beta)

Source: https://finicade.com/glossary/sp-500