Definition
The term Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index refers to a composite that includes large, mid, small, and micro-cap companies located in the United States. The Wilshire 5000 Total Market is published and maintained by Wilshire Associates.
Explanation
The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index is designed to measure the performance of the large, mid, small, and micro capitalization companies in the United States equities market. The index is a composite of all the securities (primary equity, common stock, REIT, or Limited Partnership) that have a primary market listing in the United States. Named after the 5,000 securities contained in the index at launch, the Wilshire 5000 Index does not contain a fixed number of securities and is believed to represent 99.99% of the total capitalization of the United States equities market.
First published on January 13, 1975, the index contains all U.S. headquartered equities with readily available prices. The index is calculated every second during the trading day and rebalanced monthly. The index is weighted based on both full and float-adjusted market capitalization. The performance of this index can be monitored via the stock ticker symbol W5000.
Related Terms
Wilshire US Large Cap, Wilshire US Large Cap Growth, Wilshire 4500 Completion, Russell 3000 Value