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All about Dow Jones Index – (Dow Jones Industrial Average) DJIA

What is Dow Jones and the DJIA?

The DJIAis a price-based average of about 30 important stocks that are traded on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The DJIA was devised by Charles Dow in the year 1896.

It is often called "the Dow". The DJIA is among the oldest, most-watched single indices globally. Whenever you hear TV networks say words like "the market is up today," just know they are referring to the Dow.

The DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average):

The DJIA was named after Charles Dow (the index's founder) and his partner Edward Jones. The DJIA was designed to assist as a proxy for the wider U.S. economy. When the index sprang up, it comprised just 12 establishments that were purely industrial by the look of things. The first components functioned in cotton, railroads, sugar, tobacco, gas, and oil. At the moment, General Electric is the only member of the original Dow machinery that was still part of the index in the year 2018.

As the economy goesup and down over time, the structure of the index gets affected too. The Dow usually makes changes whenever a company goes through financial distress and can’t represent the economy perfectly, or when a wide-ranging economic shift happens and a change is required to reflect it.

How the Dow Jones Index Is Calculated:

The Dow Jones Index is price-weighted. Which means stocks with greater share prices are allocated a greater weight within the index. At the inception of the Dow, Charles Dow did his calculations by adding the values of the 12 Dow component stocks and later dividing the sum by 12. In the long run, there have been similar additions and deductions to the index, likestock splits and mergers that had to be accounted for within the index. Whenever events like these occur, the divisor for the Dow gets accustomed so the value of the index doesn’t get affected. This is the ultimate reason whythe Dow can stay at 17,000 even though the sum total of the components' stock prices isn’t anywhere near that figure.

Over-Time Alterations to the Index:

In the year 1928, the index grew to about 30 components and has altered its components 51 times. The first modification came three months after the launching of the index. In the early years of its existence, until the era of the Great Depression, there were several alterations to its components. In the year 1932, eight stocks in the Dow were changed. Though, during this alteration, Procter & Gamble Co. and the Coca-Cola Company were further added to the index, two stocks that were still part of the Dow in the year 2018.

The most current large scale alteration to the Dow happened in 1997 when 4 of the index's components were changed. In 1999, another four Dow components were altered. However, the most current change occurred June 26, 2018, when General Electric Company were replaced by Boots Alliance, Inc.

Is Dow Jones a fruitful investment?

Such funds permit investors to invest within the Dow without buying all Dow's 30 stocks at their exact weights. Even though investors can make use of mutual funds, they usually charge higher fees and don’t cover the index meticulously. DIA stock provides the only honest pure play within Dow Jones investing.

TheMarket and the Dow:

Within the United States, there are 3 major indexes or indicators of market movements: the Standard & Poor's 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA or "the Dow") and theNasdaq Composite. Jointly, these market indicatorssymbolize the SMIS (Security Market Indicator Series). They offer a basic signal of the way specific markets shouldfunction during the day. Among the three, the DJIA is the most broadlydiscussed and publicized.

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