Founded in 1974 by Wilshire Associates, the Wilshire originally listed 5,000 stocks, although in subsequent decades it grew to include considerably more. The Wilshire now tracks over 7,000 stocks (although the name kept the 5,000 number in it for consistency). The index tracks every stock for every company that is headquartered in the United States, leading some to call it the Total Stock Market Index. Like the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, the Wilshire 5000 index is a market capitalization-weighted index.
http://www.investorguide.com/article/11620/s-38-p-500-wilshire-5000-and-other-indexes-igu/
Because the S&P 500 index is market weighted (also referred to as capitalization weighted), every stock in the index is represented in proportion to its total market capitalization. In other words, if the total market value of all 500 companies in the S&P 500 drops by 10%, the value of the index also drops by 10%.
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/analyst/102501.asp
The Wilshire 5000. The Wilshire 5000 is sometimes called the total stock market index or total market index because almost all publicly-traded companies with headquarters in the U.S. that have readily available price data are included in the Wilshire 5000.
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/analyst/102501.asp
What is the 'Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index - TMWX'. A market capitalization-weighted index composed of more than 6,700 publicly-traded companies that meet the following criteria: 1. The companies are headquartered in the United States. 2. The stocks are actively traded on an American stock exchange.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wilshire5000equityindex.asp
Believe it or not, the U.S. stock market had way more companies back when Mark McGwire was chasing homerun records. The number of publicly listed U.S. stocks peaked at a record 7,562 during McGwire's record-setting summer of 1998, according to the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index. Today, there are just 3,812.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/09/investing/stock-market-shrinking/index.html
BREAKING DOWN 'Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index - TMWX'. The Wilshire 5000 was originally comprised of 5,000 stocks, but today it is made up of more than 6,700. As with all market capitalization-weighted indices, the Wilshire overweights companies with a higher firm value and underweights those with a lower firm value.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wilshire5000equityindex.asp
Wilshire manages capital for more than 600 institutional investors globally representing more than $8 trillion of capital. Wilshire is also known for the creation of the Wilshire 5000 stock index in 1974 and more recently the Wilshire 4500 stock index. Wilshire operates from four business units:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilshire_Associates
The number of stocks in the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index has collapsed over the last two decades. IPOs can't keep up with M&A: The other way is through mergers and acquisitions, which cause one stock to stop trading as it's absorbed by another company.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/09/investing/stock-market-shrinking/index.html
Invests primarily in the common stock of companies included in the Wilshire 5000 Index that are representative of the Index. Uses enhanced “stratified sampling” techniques in an attempt to replicate the return of the Index. Normally holds stocks representing at least 90% of the total market value of the Index.
http://advisor.wilshire.com/ProductsServices/MutualFunds/Wilshire5000IndexFund.aspx
The Index measures the performance of all U.S. equity securities with readily available price data. Although there are nearly 4,000 stocks in the Index, the Wilshire 5000 Index Fund typically invests in 1,500–3,000 stocks in order to adequately track the performance of the Index.
http://advisor.wilshire.com/ProductsServices/MutualFunds/Wilshire5000IndexFund.aspx
wilshire number of stocks
There are 5,000 Wilshire stocks. The number of Wilshire stocks is 5000.