All > Business > Finance > Personal Finance

• A total return index is an equity market index that's calculated using the assumption that all of the dividends that the stocks in the index pay are reinvested in the index as a whole.

  Since an index is not an investment, but a statistical computation, the reinvestment occurs only on paper, or, more precisely, in a software program.

  Yahoo Finance - Cite This Source - This Definition
  ×

  Cite Definition for Total return index

  American Psychological Association (APA)

  Total return index. (n.d.). Yahoo Personal Finance Glossary. Retrieved February 4, 2023, from website: http://www.expertglossary.com/definition/total-return-index.

  Chicago Manual of Style (CMS)

  Total return index. finance.yahoo.com. Yahoo Personal Finance Glossary. Yahoo Finance. http://www.expertglossary.com/definition/total-return-index (accessed: February 4, 2023).

  Modern Language Association (MLA)

  "Total return index." Yahoo Personal Finance Glossary. Yahoo Finance. 4 February. 2023 http://www.expertglossary.com/definition/total-return-index.

• Browse Related Terms: Capital gains distribution, Compounding, Direct investment, Direct purchase plan (DPP), Distribution, dividend, Dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP), dollar cost averaging, Fractional share, Growth, January Effect, reinvestment, total return, Total return index