Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)

Definition: An index of thirty reputable companies.  These are all blue chip stocks in a number of industries.  Commonly called "the Dow."

TeenAnalyst Advice: The Dow Jones Industrial Average is just one of many different stock indexes.  It gives you a quick way of determining how the stock market has been doing.  But remember...it only represents 30 stocks!

Jonny Boy said:

Jodi - I have this as my definition - The Dow Jones Averages is the most common used form to measure the conditions of the stock market. It also is the oldest form of measuring the market. The name comes from the founding father Charles Dow, and his business associate Edward Jones. The Dow Jones Aver rages are determine by how wall the largest companies are performing during any given financial period. This is done by studying prices of top companies, and how they are performing under certain conditions such as during a war time or natural or weather disasters. This along with financial, such as stock splits or mergers is calculated all together, and computed.