Dow Jones

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, also called the Industrial Average, the Dow Jones, the Dow Jones Industrial, the Dow 30, or simply the Dow, is a price-weighted average of 30 significant stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.

It is an index that shows how 30 large publicly owned companies based in the United States have traded during a standard trading session in the stock market.

Invented by Charles Dow back in 1896, the DJIA is one of the most watched stock indexes in the world, containing companies like General Electric, Microsoft, Coca-Cola and Exxon.

Dow Jones (the company) owns the Dow Jones Industrial Average as well as many other indexes that represent different sectors of the economy.

Investing in the DJIA is made widely accessible in equities through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as well as in derivatives through option contracts and futures contracts.