The Dow--why does it get so much attention? It's only 30 stocks.

[raccoon]

Why not some other measure, such as the Russell 3000?


The Russell 3000® Index offers investors access to the broad U.S. equity universe representing approximately 98% of the U.S. market.

http://www.russell.com/US/Indexes/US/3000.asp

Wouldn't that make more sense?

Maybe some DU folks in the financial sector can enlighten me.

[JNelson6563]

1. Cause it's easy to manipulate for one thing

:toast:

[tridim]

2. The Dow average is easier to calculate on their Univac Computer

That's all I can figure. They should take the average of all the stocks.. There's no practical reason why they can't.

Not that I pay a lick of attention to the market anyway. I pulled all my stocks when Enron came to light. The market is a scam.

[swag]

3. Not only that, it's fucking price-weighted.

Not even market-value-weighted.

Ignore it.

[Dave Reynolds]

4. I'm not in finance, but

a family friend said 30 years ago that the Dow was an outdated and worthless index, he paid more attention to S&P.

And yes, he was wealthy from stocks.