The Germany 40, or the DAX 40, is an index that reflects the performance of 40 major blue-chip German entities listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Deutsche Börse). Created in 1988, the DAX 40 is a free-floating index covering the German companies with the largest market capitalisation and book value. It represents approximately 80% of the Deutsche Börse's market cap. Basically, the DAX 40 is a benchmark, tracking the direction of the stock market in Germany. The prices used to calculate the index are provided by the trading platform Xetra.