What is the Dow?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, often called ”the Dow“ for short, is another way that the financial industry measures the US stock market. It’s another indicator used to gauge how well US stocks are doing, just like the S&P500, but the Dow has less companies in it. Where the S&P 500 has…500 companies, the Dow has only 30. And all of the companies in the Dow are in the S&P500. Companies like Apple and Walt Disney and Nike are included in the Dow today.

The Dow Jones is also called an Index or a Benchmark, and lots of people track how it’s doing, in order to assess how they feel about the stock market as a whole.

As of this writing, the Dow was at $35,677.02. What does that mean? It means that the share prices of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow, divided by a somewhat complex concept of a ‘divisor,’ add up to $35,677.02. The Dow moves up and down, but the overall trend is up.

Keeping track of how the Dow and the S&P500 are trading is an easy way to start paying attention to the stock market. You can do that just by googling ‘how is the Dow doing today?’ etc.

Let me know in the comments if you track the Dow, or might be willing to start? And as always, thanks for reading this!

Quick Links:

What is Money? is HERE

What is Investing? is HERE

What is The Investing Starter Kit? is HERE

Sign up for The Investing Starter Kit waitlist HERE.