What Is The Dow Jones -- What Does It Mean When The Dow Falls And The Dow Coming Close To Hitting 20

The Dow Jones Industrial Avergae (DJIA), sometimes referred to as the Dow, was created by Charles Dow, founder of The Wall Street Journal, to measure the daily stock price movements of 30 large, publicly-owned U.S. companies. The DJIA is price-weighted, meaning that the movement in stocks with higher prices impacts the Dow more than stocks with lower prices. The Dow's daily value is not the true average of the 30 stocks' prices, but is actually the sum of the prices divided by the Dow divisor, which is adjusted in cases of stock splits, spinoffs and other structural changes to keep the weighting constant and maintain continuity. If you follow the market you'll probably hear that the Dow is down or has fallen X number of points and you've probably wondered what does this mean. Well the Dow falls when the value of the DJIA decreases. The Dow may sometimes fall because investors are cautious of putting their money into one or more of the companies the DJIA represents. The Dow may also fall when external factors affect the investment markets as a whole. The reason I wanted to discuss the Dow Jones Industrial Average is because it rose within a fraction of a point from hitting 20,000, and came close on several occasions thereafter on Friday January 6 and now the question is when will it get to that 20,000 mark. Will it be today, tomorrow when. As of 3:33 pm today the Dow is at 19,917.13. To get more information on what the Dow Jones is and it coming close to hitting 20,000 points click on the pictures below to read the articles.