The Design, Application and Future Development of the F.T.-Actuaries Index

Abstract

SynopsisNow that the original Actuaries Investment Index has been replaced by the F.T.-Actuaries 500 Share series, the Authors felt it appropriate to prepare a sequel to their earlier paper “Investment Policy and Index Numbers” submitted in 1956.The first part of the paper deals with the selection of the constituents and of the groups for the Equity indexes, and with the methods of averaging and weighting that are used.The new index with its wide coverage and its daily quotation represents a considerable advance over the earlier Actuaries and F.T. series and should be widely used for checking portfolio performance and for determining investment policy. Representing as it does the experience of a large and comprehensive sample of U.K. industry the index display should be of considerable application for long-term historical studies and for purposes of social research and national economic planning.Suggestions are made for extending the index coverage so as to include items such as the asset value, the cash flow, the stock level and the capital expenditure as used for investment analysis.In the final section entitled “Investment Analysis by Computor” the Authors draw attention to the value of the index statistics for investment analysis. These statistics might be used to build up data from which a form of investment analysis by computor could be developed.Altogether the question of further development of the index coverage and of making proper use of the statistics is a most fruitful field for further research by members of the profession.