Charles Schwab Investment Management of San Francisco last week introduced the Schwab Total Stock Market Index Fund. The fund is designed to track the performance of the U.S. stock market, as measured by the Wilshire 5000 Index. The index contains nearly every U.S. publicly-traded stock.
Whereas most index funds mimic the performance of the S&P 500 large-cap stocks, this fund is meant to offer investors broader diversification into small- and mid-cap stocks, company officials said. It is also meant to be more tax efficient than those that mimic the S&P 500.
Bill Klipp, president and chief operating officer, said that although small- and mid-cap stocks have not performed as well as large-cap stocks, he expects them to rebound in the near future.
