what is a market basket 
a market basket is a selected group of products or assets designed to track the general performance of a specific market segment this is sometimes known as a basket of goods market basket economics focuses on the consumer price index cpi which tracks various consumer goods and uses their price levels to provide an estimate of inflation however for investors a market basket relates to financial securities and is the principle idea behind index funds baskets can also be found in securities markets where program traders may enter into a series of positions in several stocks or currencies at the same time 