Similar Stocks The simple and easy way to find similar ETFs, stocks and funds

What does practically identical mean?

Two stocks being practically identical means that when you look at the daily movement of the stocks, along with the return profiles going back 1, 2 and 5 years, the stocks have pratically identical movements and return profiles.
A simple example of this would be the Schwab ETF SCHB and the Vanguard fund VTI, which both attempt to index the same underlying groups of stocks and thus have very similar movements and returns.

What does extremely similar mean?

Two stocks that are extremely similar means that their return profiles and daily movements are, as the name suggests, extremely similar, but there is just enough difference in the movements and/or returns that they may or may not be drop-in replacements for one another. This could be due to slight differences in the underlying assets, or different expense ratios, or comparing some mutual funds and ETFs that are designed to be similar.

What does negatively correlated mean?

This means that if you look at the daily movement of two stocks, they generally move in the opposite direction.
The types of funds which are negatively correlated will generally have entirely different types of assets, or are designed to move in opposite directions.
An example of extremely negatively correlated stocks would be comparing an ETF designed to short the S&P 500, such as SH, to an ETF that is designed to track the S&P 500, such as VOO or IVV. In these cases, the negative correlation is -99%, meaning that these stocks move almost perfectly opposite one another.