Advantages of Index Investing What Index Investing Means? Index Investing is a form of passive investing that aims to generate profits by mimicking the return rate of a particular market index. In other words, it is a type of investment that focuses on a whole market index rather than on specific stocks. There are two ways of doing so: index funds and exchange-traded funds, commonly known as ETFs. Index investing funds are generally related to retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s, being the core of many investors’ portfolios.