ETFs are exchange traded funds are just that: investment funds which trade on an exchange, where you can invest and divest by trading a symbol. Index funds are

ETFs are exchange traded funds are just that: investment funds which trade on an exchange, where you can invest and divest by trading a symbol. Index funds are investment funds which seek to match the performance of a target index. The concepts are orthogonal. You can have index funds which aren't ETFs and you can have ETFs which aren't index funds.