MSCI ACWI - All Country World Index

A market capitalization weighted index designed to provide a broad measure of equity-market performance throughout the world. The MSCI ACWI is maintained by Morgan Stanley Capital International, and is comprised of stocks from both developed and emerging markets.

As of January 2009, this index contains stocks from 46 different countries. There are 23 countires classified as developed markets and 23 countries considered emerging markets. Typically the index is built first at the country level, and then the 46 indexes are aggregated into the MSCI All Country World Index. A similar index exists that contains the same countries with the exception of the U.S. - the MSCI ACWI Ex-U.S.