Composed by Standard & Poor's, the S&P 500 index was introduced in 1923. It is a market-capitalization-weighted index that is associated with many ticker symbols, including GSPC, INX, and $SPX.

The S&P 500 index includes 500 components which are stocks of large companies traded at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the NASDAQ. The S&P 500 index reflects the overall capitalization rate of these stocks. The list of companies in the S&P 500 comprises only the biggest U.S. corporations and does not include private firms and companies with insufficient liquidity. In addition, the list of S&P 500 components represents various sectors of the U.S. economy. Due to the fact that the majority of the index components are American companies, many experts consider it an accurate indicator of the U.S. current economic conditions as well as its future changes. The main trait of the index is its role in the world economy: the S&P 500 is well-diversified and perfectly mirrors the U.S. market state.

According to analysts, there are several advantages of trading the S&P 500. One of them is an opportunity to trade on the U.S. stock market via CFDs on the leading stock index. Besides, this index is a great trading tool for traders because it has high liquidity and is traded within convenient hours of the American trading session.