The Dow Jones Industrial Average (the “Dow”) is

is the oldest and most famous index. It is an average of the stock prices of 30 of the largest companies, each hand-picked by the editors of the company (Dow Jones) that publishes The Wall Street Journal. These are McDonald’s, Disney, Microsoft, and other household names—big stocks like these are called blue chips. Since 30 stocks is only a small sample of the very biggest multi-billion-dollar companies, the Dow doesn’t always provide an especially accurate reading of where the entire market is going.