Morgan Stanley Equity Indices

Keep track of the most commonly followed Morgan Stanley Indices If you have an interest in investing using composite indices, knowing where to find the definitions for, and performance of, the Morgan Stanley EAFE Index, the Morgan Stanley World Index and other Morgan Stanley equity indices will come in handy.

I recommend:  The MSCI Barra website has information on the popular Morgan Stanley EAFE Index, the Morgan Stanley World Index and other international indices. You can find performance information for these international Morgan Stanley Equity Indices here as well. MSCI Barra also offers domestic equity index products and corresponding performance information for those indices.

Find information on ETFs that strive to mimic or to outperform the returns of Morgan Stanley Indices If you have a belief that the underlying securities of a Morgan Stanley Equity Index will perform well, one way to take advantage of that upswing is to invest in an ETF that follows that index.

I recommend:  If you have an interest in all ETFs available for Morgan Stanley Indices, Bloomberg has a lookup feature where you put the “symbol," which would be MSCI, and it will list all securities with MSCI in the name. Some specific, well-known ETFs include iShares’ Morgan Stanley EAFE Index fund, Lyxor’s ETF MSCI World and State Street Global Advisers’ SPDR MSCI ASCI ex-US ETF. Some general providers of Morgan Stanley equity indices ETFs include iShares international ETFs and Lyxor’s complete range of ETFs.

Investigate mutual funds that have recently outperformed the Morgan Stanley EAFE The MSCI EAFE is a commonly used benchmark for international equity mutual funds.

I recommend:  The following international mutual funds have outperformed the Morgan Stanley EAFE in recent years: Fidelity Diversified International Fund, Oakmark International Small Cap Fund and Janus Overseas fund.