ETFs Glossary

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REIT

Real Estate Investment Trust, a type of mutual fund that owns portfolios of commercial real estate. There are indexes for this asset class, and REIT ETFs follow these indexes.

Returns

Indicate the total percentage gain of a fund over that time period.

R squared

R-squared ranges from 0 to 100 and reflects the percentage of a fund's movements that are explained by movements in its benchmark index. An R-squared of 100 means that all movements of a fund are completely explained by movements in the index. Thus, index funds that invest only in S&P 500 stocks will have an R-squared very close to 100. Conversely, a low R-squared indicates that very few of the fund's movements are explained by movements in its benchmark index. An R-squared measure of 35, for example, means that only 35% of the fund's movements can be explained by movements in its benchmark index. Therefore, R-squared can be used to ascertain the significance of a particular beta or alpha. Generally, a higher R-squared will indicate a more useful beta figure. If the R-squared is lower, then the beta is less relevant to the fund's performance.

Russell indexes

In 1984, Frank Russell Company created the Russell family of stock indexes as part of a more accurate and comprehensive system for evaluating the performance of investment managers. Russell now maintains 21 U.S. stock indexes and has launched similar broad-market and style indexes in Japan.