What is analysis paralysis?

Analysis paralysis (or paralysis by analysis) can be described as the situation when you (or even a group of people) are unable to make a decision because of a continuous effort to over-analyze a problem and weigh pros and cons on what is perceived like a big decision. It is rooted in the fear of either making an error or the wrong decision. This phenomenon can apply to anything, including investing. It's not uncommon for investors to get wrapped up in the analysis of the many investing options until it becomes impossible to choose one.

Making a decision

与其耗费精力去分析每个数据点和投资产品，不如先简化您的决策过程。 As termed by a famous pioneer of modern portfolio theory, diversification is the only free lunch in investing and a key to building an investment portfolio. In simple terms, diversification is the idea of purchasing multiple investments to help reduce risk and give you a great opportunity to make money in the stock markets.这就是指数化成为打破投资决策瘫痪的重要策略的关键所在。

Index investing is an investment strategy where the goal is to track a benchmark index by purchasing securities that are held by the index and/or will perform in a like manner to the index. The desired result is to have similar performance to the index being tracked rather than trying to outperform the index that is often associated with active investing.

Indices come in all shapes and sizes, from those that track a broad swath of the investment market that may provide exposure to hundreds or thousands of stocks and bonds, to on the other extreme very niche indices that may have only a handful of securities held. There are also indices that seek to provide specific investment outcomes like growth, value, higher dividends, etc.

Broad market index investing is accomplished by obtaining exposure to an index that represents a large portion of the investment market and can be said to define that investment space. For example, a popular index to track the U.S. stock market is the S&P500 Index which tracks the largest 500 stocks trading on U.S. stock exchanges. When people refer to the performance of the U.S. stock market, they often quote the performance of the S&P500 Index as the measuring stick of such performance. An index which measures a larger or more diverse group of securities which may constitute an entire market can be said to be a broad market index.

Why invest in a broad market index?

Diversification - Different securities (stocks or bonds) will perform differently at different times. Diversification across a number of securities tends to minimize the risk of underperformance of an individual stock or bond negatively affecting your overall investment returns.

Lower cost – Costs are an important factor when making an investment decision. Things like management fees and commissions can eat away at your returns. Broad market index investing typically comes with lower fees which means that you keep more of the investment returns.

Performance - Broad market indices track the performance of an entire investment market while other exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will track a subset, segment or particular characteristic of the market. By capturing the entire market, broad market indices will not miss out on whatever part of the market is doing well.

There are a few ways you can go about this. One of the easiest ways is through ETFs which can give you exposure to hundreds of securities in one purchase. ETFs are investment products that are bought and sold on exchanges, much like stocks. The first step to buying an ETF is opening a registered or non-registered account with a discount brokerage, like TD Direct Investing.

About TD ETFs
As one of the largest institutional asset managers in Canada, TD Asset Management Inc. (TDAM) has been offering index investments to pension plans, endowments, and foundations for decades—but we've also been offering index investments to Canadians since before ETFs were invented, since 1985 in fact.

With a legacy of experience in passive investing, we also offer ETFs that are sector focused, quantitative active solutions from one of the largest quantitative teams in Canada, and fundamental active solutions from our award-winning portfolio managers.

To view our entire ETF line-up, visit us at td.com/etfs and download our TD ETF Product Guide.

本文所含信息由道明资产管理有限公司提供，仅供参考。信息出自我们认为可靠的来源。本信息并未提供财务、法律、税务或投资建议。具体的投资、税款或交易策略应根据每位投资者的目标和风险承受能力加以评估。

进行交易所买卖基金投资可能需要负担相关佣金、管理费以及支出。 Please read the prospectus and ETF Facts before investing. ETFs are not guaranteed, their values change frequently, and past performance may not be repeated.交易所买卖基金单位在证券交易所按市场价格进行买卖，因此收益会因经纪人佣金的支付而减少。

本文档中的部分陈述可能包含预测性的前瞻性陈述（“FLS”），其中包含“预计”、“预期”、“打算”、“认为”、“估计”和类似的前瞻性表述或其否定形式。前瞻性陈述基于当前对未来普遍的经济、政治、相关市场因素（例如利率和汇率、股票和资本市场）以及普遍经营环境的预计和预测，并假定不发生税法或其他法律或政府管制方面的任何变动或灾难事件。对于未来事件的预计和预测本身受无法预见的风险和不确定性的影响。此等预计和预测可能在未来并不准确。前瞻性陈述并非对未来表现的保证。实际发生的事件可能与前瞻性陈述明示或暗示的事件存在实质差异。包括上文所述各项因素在内的多个重要因素均可能造成这种背离。您不应在任何程度上依赖于前瞻性陈述。

道明交易所买卖基金由道明银行（Toronto-Dominion Bank）全资子公司道明资产管理有限公司（TD Asset Management Inc.）管理。

道明资产管理有限公司 (TD Asset Management Inc.) 是道明银行 (The Toronto-Dominion Bank) 的全资拥有附属机构。

® TD标志和其他TD商标为道明银行或其子公司的产权。