portfolio management and accounting, and significantly increase  the amount of equity research content and functionality. As detailed on page 27, we currently provide extensive data on  nearly 380,000 investments globally, including managed investment  products, individual securities, capital markets data, real-time stock  quotes from nearly all of the world’s major stock exchanges, and a  live data feed that covers exchange-traded equities, derivatives,  commodities, futures, foreign exchanges, precious metals, news,  company fundamentals, and analytics. Our goal is to continue building or acquiring new databases for  additional types of investments, including various types of funds  outside the United States and other widely used investment products. Our data is the foundation for all of the products and services we  offer. We focus on proprietary, value-added data, such as our com- prehensive data on current and historical portfolio holdings for  mutual funds and variable annuities. Within each database, we  continuously update our data to maintain timeliness and expand  the depth and breadth of coverage. Our strategy is to continuously  expand our databases, focusing on investment products that are  widely used by large numbers of investors. In particular, we’re focus- ing on expanding our fundamental equity data. We also strive to  establish our databases as the pre-eminent choice for individual  investors, financial advisors, and institutional clients around the  world, as well as continuing to invest in world-class data quality,  processing, and delivery. Over the past several years, we’ve developed a series of proprietary  indexes based on our investment data. The Morningstar Indexes  are rooted in our proprietary research and can be used for precise  asset allocation and benchmarking and as tools for portfolio con- struction and market analysis. We’ve expanded the range of indexes  we offer over the past three years and are working to expand our  index business globally. We believe that our leadership position in independent investment  research offers a competitive advantage that would be difficult for  competitors to replicate. Our goal is to continue producing invest- ment insights that empower investors and focus our research efforts  in four major areas: We’re including this research on our three major software plat- forms to provide investors with an additional perspective on  fixed-income investments. We also plan to monetize the ratings  through subscriptions to our institutional equity research clients,  who have access to the forecasts, models, and scores underlying  the ratings. We’re committed to maintaining the broad, high-quality coverage  we’ve become known for as one of the largest providers of inde- pendent equity research. We’re working to expand distribution  of our equity research through a variety of channels, including  through financial advisors, buy-side firms, and companies outside  of the United States. We believe that investors’ increasing aware- ness of the value of independent research will strengthen our  business over the long term. We’ve also expanded our proprietary  stock database, which we view as an important complement to  our analyst research. U Extend leadership position in fund research to additional markets  outside the United States.  Over the past several years, we have  expanded our analyst coverage in fund markets outside of the  United States. We’ve built an integrated team of locally based  fund experts to expand our research coverage in additional markets  around the world. As of December 31, 2010, we had nearly 100  fund analysts globally, including teams in North America, Europe,  Asia, and Australia. We currently produce qualitative analyst  research on more than 1,500 funds outside the United States. U Continue leveraging our capabilities in stocks.  Our equity research  complements our approach to mutual fund analysis, where we  focus on analyzing the individual stocks that make up each fund’s  portfolio. As of December 31, 2010, we provided analyst research  on approximately 2,300 companies globally. U Build business in fixed-income credit research.  We began publish- ing research and ratings on corporate credit issuers in December  2009 and currently produce research and ratings on more than  720 corporate credit issuers. In 2010, we entered into our first  credit research agreement with a major financial services firm  to provide credit ratings and research to its 18,000 financial advi- sors. We view credit ratings as a natural extension of the equity  research we’ve been producing for the past decade. We believe  we have a unique viewpoint to offer on company default risk that  leverages our cash-flow modeling expertise, proprietary measures  like economic moat, and in-depth knowledge of the companies  and industries we cover. 3. Continue building thought leadership in independent investment research. 2. Create a premier global investment database. Morningstar, Inc. 2010 Annual Report 29