Here's the Average Stock Market Return Over the Last 15 Years

More than 5,700 companies are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, the two largest trading platforms for U.S. securities. Some of those companies are grouped into indexes that measure different aspects of the domestic Stock market. Certain indexes are quite broad, while others are rather niche.

The three most popular U.S. stock indexes are in the black this year. The broad-based S 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) has advanced 15%, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) has advanced 4%, and the growth-focused Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) has advanced 19%.

Read on to learn how all three stock market indexes performed over the past 15 years.

Source Fool.com