Since its inception in 1991, the PHLX/KBW Bank Index has increased by more than 300% and traded at an all-time high of 1,020 on March 1st, 2004. Over the past year, the BKX has grown by nearly 50% and has outperformed the S&P 500 in each of the past four years.
The PHLX/KBW Bank Index (BKX) is comprised of 24 national money center banks and leading regional banks and is widely used on Wall Street to gauge the state of the banking industry. Options on the capitalization-weighted bank index trade exclusively at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and are used by traders and institutional money managers to anticipate and respond to fundamental shifts in the banking sector. To assure that the composition is highly representative of the banking industry, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods evaluates the index at least annually.
