In contrast to relative return: Investors seeking absolute returns judge the success of their investments by the degree to which they have grown from the start to end of a given period, without reference to the performance of other investments, benchmarks or the market as a whole. An absolute return is deemed to have been achieved if the value of an investment is greater at the end of the period than it was at the beginning.

Target a fixed level of return (e.g. 10%), or positive investment returns, rather than investment returns which are compared to market indices.

Returns unrelated to and independent of any index measure of performance.