Dow 30

The movie tag line: Two guys meet in a bar and decide to choose 30 large, publicly owned companies to track and use as an index for the entire stock market.

We didn’t say it was a hit movie.

Created by the former editor of the Wall Street Journal, Charles Dow and his business partner Edward Jones established the Dow 30 in 1896, and today investors all over the world refer to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, or just the “Dow,” when they want to evaluate the market after a standard trading session. The 30 companies that are tracked change on a regular basis as their stocks and their industries gain or lose in popularity.

Too bad there wasn’t an Apple in 1896.