Morgan Stanley Capital International

Morgan Stanley Capital International - MSCI
A series of indexes constructed by Morgan Stanley to help institutional investors benchmark their returns. These indexes are also used for investment purposes - in the form of exchanged-traded funds - by all types of investors. There are a wide range of indexes created by Morgan Stanely covering a wide range of developed and emerging economies and a wide range of economic sectors.
Most of these indexes can be purchased through iShares by institutional and retail investors around the world. In providing benchmarks for institutional investors such as mutual funds and hedge funds, MSCI offers region- and sector-specific indexes that may be more relevant compared to a large market index such as the S&P 500. For example, a more appropriate index for a mutual fund that invests in small-cap stocks in the U.S. would be the 'MSCI US Small Cap 1750 Index' instead of the S&P 500.
What does it mean when people say they "beat the market"? How do they know they've done so? Indexes: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - Indexes are good for tracking market trends, but these tracking devices are not perfect, so you need to determine just how much you can rely on them.