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• 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.

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  Cite Definition for Total return index

  American Psychological Association (APA)

  Total return index. (n.d.). Yahoo Personal Finance Glossary. Retrieved November 30, 2022, 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: November 30, 2022).

  Modern Language Association (MLA)

  "Total return index." Yahoo Personal Finance Glossary. Yahoo Finance. 30 November. 2022 http://www.expertglossary.com/definition/total-return-index.

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