The DJ Index, or the Dow Jones Indicator, is a market index of the thirty most prominent publicly traded companies listed on U.S. equity exchanges. Because it provides information about the performance of global corporations, it has become the core concept and reference point for many investors who follow business news. It shows an analysis of market performance based upon the stocks of these companies. The DJ includes all the major worldwide company names and serves as a primary basis for many other indices as well. The index is widely used by financial institutions as well as individual investors to gauge the performance of individual companies.
The DJ includes not only the major international but also national names such as AT&T, Ford, General Motors, Cisco, McDonald’s, eBay, and Wal-mart. Many other smaller companies and industries are also represented in the Dow. An investor in any investment can look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Dow Jones Utility Composite, which include the Dow Jones Indicator and other similar data, to gauge the performance of their stocks.
The DJ has become the standard by which future investors judge the performance of stocks within the exchange-traded funds. While the DJ is widely used around the world investors in the alternative investment market use the current to average index instead. The historical low average index provides a more accurate picture of how companies in the DJ Indicator are performing now than the current index. Investors interested in future trading of equities should consider using the current DJ average rather than the current index for their analysis of stock performance within exchange traded funds.