Spread

I left those question marks in the table because I'd switched to Dividend.com who I figured should be the authority and, yes, their analysis is pretty exhaustive otherwise as my pilfered samples demonstrate. Maybe they don't do foreign banks and trust funds. How then to explain Volkswagen and Yamaha?

Our four shares in Volkswagen that we bought in 2011 would have returned dividends of 3.168 + 3.64 + 4.384 + 4.352 + 0.1 or, in other words, $15.64
That is, for Volkswagen AG

I could go and compare the other subsidiaries but I can't be arsed. The point is, a large company that can shrug and say "Hmm, we've had a bad year" after losing a few billion has still performed in the market in such a way as to affect returns for shareholders. Charging along on that scale has put the investor who plunked down four hundred and forty dollars in 2011, fifteen dollars sixty four in dividends in front and, if he or she sell them in disgust will nett $76.20. A grand total then of US$91.84 in profit. 20.8% of our investment which is more than you'd get in a savings account. True, you'd have to sell all four shares to get that but investors do this all the time.

What about our sixty five shares in Yamaha? They've made this easy
   1,007.50
+   650
+ 1,690
+ 2,600
+ 2,860
_______
   8,807.50 yen

this is just shy of A$114.50
or 23% of our purchase price

Add the A$1722.88 we've made in the shareprice rise and that $1837.38 has us celebrating by pumping out a tune on our Yamaha keyboard or going for a ride on our Yamaha motor-bike

II

VW would require a larger parcel of shares held for longer, Yamaha, with its jump in value is good over the shorter term.

Often investors hold onto stock for many years. This way they get the benefit of dividends and rise in value. There are ways to become rich doing this. And it's also about timing when it comes to selling. Or you may decide to continue to draw benefit. Even more recent stock can prove to have been a good buy.

The stock market doesn't hold interest to everyone. Some will have parents or grandparents who leave (a portion of) their portfolio and they can get by without knowing how an exchange traded fund works: does it have all these shares in other entities while having shares itself and is there an infinite regress?

ASX site asserts Exchange-traded products (ETPs) is the family name for the group of products comprising exchange-traded funds (ETFs), managed funds (MF) and structured products (SPs). There are over 100 ETPs accessible through ASX.

So, are we always dealing with one manner of Exchange-traded product or another? You might even have experience of managed funds and your own investments. Don't forget the structured products.