The best-known freight indices are those that the Baltic Exchange publishes every day. The exchange collects the freight levels of each route from a group of brokers who stand between shipowners and charterers, and takes a weighted average to form the index. Dry bulk is quoted in dollars per day and tankers in dollars per ton1.
Besides indices for individual routes, there are average indices that combine the rates by vessel size. As of a 2018 paper, trading in freight derivatives was concentrated in longer contracts settled on these average indices2. Actual index levels change every day, so this entry does not show them.