It's easy to track stock and bond indexes with ETFs

— -- Q: Is there an easy way to track the daily performance of the Barclay's Aggregate Bond index, DJ Wilshire 5000 index and EAFE index?

A: Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, aren't just interesting investments. They're excellent ways to track market indexes.

Clearly, you can look up each of the indexes you mention. If you have a professional-level trading terminal, all those indexes are easily accessible. You can also get them from the individual index providers' websites.

But ETFs, or mutual fund-like baskets of stocks, trade all day and allow you to easily see pretty accurately how an index is doing. And you did ask for an easy way to get the information.

The advantage of tracking indexes using ETFs that mirror those indexes is that you can enter stock symbols into any quote service, including at USATODAY.com. Just go to money.usatoday.com and enter the ticker symbols for ETFs that track the indexes you want. You can see a price chart and even get the year-to-date change if you go to the quote page.

Here are the ticker symbols for ETFs that track the indexes you asked about:

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Click here to see previous Ask Matt columns.