Making the Most of Index Funds

Index funds have surely lost some fans over the past couple of years. They go down when the market does and they aren't necessarily a panacea for whatever ails your portfolio.

But they're still solid investments. Thankfully, plenty of investors know that.

Actual stock picking does tend to work better than indexing in the small-cap market, a topic that this column addressed last week. But index funds covering broad swaths of the market do serve a purpose and, as a result, have a following. ...