When the DOW gets to 13,275 CNBC, then maybe I'll get excited....

[WCGreen]

Until then, Stop treating each incremental move above the high hit 6 years ago as if it was yet more proof that the economy is humming along just fine...

The school girl giggling is unbecoming... I'm waiting for an Oh My Gawd... The DOW is so goin' higher...

The economy is not humming along...

The economic numbers that you should be concerned with are consumer debt, mortgage foreclosures, stagnate wages even when productivity is rising, the high cost of health care...

Maybe if you had to pay for your health care you would be a little more concerned...

Maybe if you weren't fawning all over every swingin' dick CEO who buys a Harley to prove his masculinity you might really look at what is happening in America to Americans...

And Larry Krudlow can just bite my ass with his smug supply side economics...

Didn't he say back in the late 90's that the DOW would reach 25,000 by 2005-06...

Not even half way there Larry boy...

BTW, Erin and Maria and Steve and all the rest, the DOW is under performing...

Just to keep even with the rate of inflation over the past six years, the DOW would have to be somewhere in the vicinity of 13,275.00...

As far as I can see, the DOW is still off by more than 10%...

Remember one thing, you are not Chearleaders...

If you really wanna do that, head on over to the new Faux Financial Network...

Oh yea, now I get it... All you gals and guys are really trying out for the new Murdoch Network... So you really don't have any credibility at all now do you...

[Sammy Pepys]

1. The whole inflation thing....

..is virtually meaningless. In fact, where the DJIA is now is no indication of the overall returns investors have realized. It's nothing more than a weighted index of the 30 or so stock out of over 11,000 available to purchase.

[WCGreen]

2. But comparing it to 2000, you have to factor in inflation in

order to measure the return of investments you would have made in 2000 to what they are today...

Many mutual funds are Dow based and so yea, the inflation factor is important...

[Sammy Pepys]

4. But using the DJIA is not necessarily going to get you the right number

The Dow is a weighted average of 30 stocks. If you don't hold those 30 stocks in the same proportion they are treated in in calculating the DJIA index, you're not going to get an accurate assessment of what your returns are.

There are many index mutual funds that have the DJIA as a bogey (though even those funds will adjust their weightings to differ slightly from the index). But a lot of mutual funds aren't tied to indexes at all. If you're buying issues that are not represented in the DJIA, the DJIA and its adjustment for inflation isn't going to tell you squat about your actual return. Throw in dollar cost averaging, and you might as well use the team batting average for the Kansas City Royals to assess the effects on inflation on your return.

If you want to see how your portfolio performed with regards to inflation, all you have to do is compare your rate of return to the rate of inflation for that same time period. You don't need to consult the DJIA at all.

[WCGreen]

5. I realize that....

But it seems the people at CNBC seem to think that we are all use the DOW as a measure of economic performance...

And many people do...

If you had an index fund based on the S&P or the NASDAQ 100, where they hell would you be now...

Funds tanked in 2000-01 and are just now showing a return over an above the high mark of the late 90's...

So the market is still underperforming by historical measures...

[Sammy Pepys]

8. Well, it's one of many.

I've heard arguments that the Dow is a leading AND a lagging indicator.

Where you are in your investments depends just as much on how you invest as it does on what you invest in. If you were buying regularly in 2002 and 2003 when the DJIA was bouncing around 7000 and 8000, the chances are pretty good that you started experiencing overall gains a long time before this "landmark achievement" of hitting 12000 on the intraday was even being talked about.

[WCGreen]

13. But people hear a new record in the DOW....

That is the point I am making...

They know and you and I know it is relatively meaningless....

But to the person watching the news or listening to the radio, they hear the DOW is in record territory, they think things are going well...

[Sammy Pepys]

15. Well, it's a new record for the Dow.

It is what it is.

Things like the stock market and investing are one area I think the Dems need to become a little more solid on. It seems like there is still an overarching view that the stock market is mostly the playground of the rich, and that's just not the case anymore.

[radfringe]

3. well, I'll get excited about the DOW numbers

when I see some of it trickling into my wallet... right now my wallet is in major drought mode

[BootinUp]

6. The Dow is going higher, because Dems are about to win the house!

You can feel free to use that spin, I believe its the truth. Traders are not dummies, reminds me of when Clinton won in 92 and interest rates started going down and stock market rebounded.

[magnolia]

7. I hope you are right.....

On the other hand, watching the Dow get higher is literally watching the rich get richer. Since I'm not one of them I can't get too excited.

[Sammy Pepys]

9. Well, not everyone in the stock market is rich n/t

....

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. K&R........

:applause: :applause:

[indepat]

11. What amount does 13,275 need to be bumped for loss in value of the $?

[WCGreen]

12. Well, first of all you would have to decide on which curency

you on which you wanted to peg it...

Then you could figure it out...

But internally, that wouldn't make as much difference...

[TahitiNut]

14. Actually, the DJIA should be adjusted by GDP, not the CPI.

:shrug: There's more than one way to 'adjust' for inflation and the size of the economy. In this case, the CPI is almost irrelevant. It's far more relevant to compare it to the GDP.