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Markets & Instruments

What Is the Dow Jones

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is an index of thirty large American companies added by share price and divided by a published divisor, the oldest index still quoted and the odd one out among today's big ones. This paper shows you the Dow in five lines with the real level of 25 August 2026; the idea as thirty bars of different heights; the Dow on the daily chart from June to September 2026; the sum and the divisor with example figures that give the real level; and US30 on your platform, with its real 10:00 price and the tick value line.

Difficulty
Beginner
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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The Dow Jones, in five lines

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is an index of thirty large, long-established American companies, added by share price rather than by size, which is the oldest rule and the odd one out among today's big indexes. It began in 1896 as a newspaper column with twelve companies, and has had thirty since 1928. The number stood at 53,528.12 points at 10:00 on Tuesday 25 August 2026 in this library's bars. That day it ran from 53,362.54 to 53,733.67, 371.13 points, which at a broker paying one dollar a point is 371.13 dollars a lot.

Thirty bars of different heights

Picture thirty bars of different heights, one per company, each bar the company's share price. The Dow is the heights added up and divided by a small number, so the tallest bar, a 500-dollar share, moves the sum ten times as much as a 30-dollar one, whatever the two companies are worth. A firm with a high share price and a modest size outweighs a giant whose shares happen to be cheap. That is the Dow's rule, price weighting, and it is why the Dow and a size-weighted index can disagree on the same day.

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