S&P info

I was searching for information about the average p/e ratio for the S&P 500 and had some trouble doing so. The reason why I have been searching for this information is because a book I have been reading refers to getting the average P/E of indices such as the S&P 500. The book I have been reading (at a glacial pace) David Dreman's [old but genius interview] Contrarian Investment Strategies in the Next Generation .

Hopefully I'll finish reading this book before his next update to the book is published.

So I went searching ...

Side note: I've been trying to kick the google habit and found more success with ask.com tonight. Score one for ask.com! Unfortunately, I still have this habit of opening a web browser and typing "www.google.com" which is proving difficult to break.

I'm not saying that google couldn't find it but I am saying that I didn't have to re-word my search with ask.com or paw through any extra links. In any case here is the article that shows you where to go.

Just in case the information in this article vanishes one day, here is the pertinent information:

Go to www.sandp.com, select United States, then click on the "products & services" pull-down bar, then the "indices" option. Next, choose the "learn more" option listed under the Standard & Poor's 500 entry. Next, click the "data" tab, select "earnings' and then scroll down a bit to "S&P 500 Historical Average Price to Earnings Ratio." That will open a spreadsheet showing the S&P 500's P-E ratio every quarter going back to the index' inception in 1936.

Here is the link to the data page that I am sure will change once the S&P dudes redo their site.