30 years ago today the Dow Jones closed above 1,000 for 1st time (1003.16)

And that in 1980 it broke 2000 for the first time. And that 3 years ago it broke 10,000 for the first time. And that now it SUCKS.

<font color="#ff6666">It sucks? hell it is still above 8,000 (as of this morning) that is 8 times what it was in 1980 [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

ummmm don't you mean 4 times? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hmmmm... 400% growth since 1980...400/23 years=....17% return per year!
Not all that sucky if you ask me. ;)

Excuse my ignorence,but what is Dow Jones? :embarrassed:

Its the biggest stock on the Wall Street. :D

<font color = lightgreen>SomeGuy, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a complicated formula that takes 30 individual stocks from major companies in a wide variety of industries and generates the number you can see on the nightly news (or every 10 minutes via the Internet).
In and of itself, the average really means nothing; however, it is a leading economic indicator. This means that if the Dow is up then the economy is improving (wages and productivity are rising while price inflation is staying relatively constant). Unfortunately, this indication is valid only if you look more long term, for perhaps one entire month.

Too many people put too much emphasis on the day-to-day Dow averages; this is unwise.

There are many other stock averages, including the S&P 500, the AMEX, the NASDAQ, the Bloomberg, the FTSE (in London), the DAX (in Germany), the Nikkei (in Tokyo), etc.

Wilbur, yes--the stock exchange is, over the long term, the single greatest investment scheme yet invented. However, in order to make money one must think correctly about the stock market--long term. Do not invest and try to turn a quick profit in a couple of days or months; invest monthly and let your investment grow for at least 10 years.</font>

it's also good to note that with teh exception of the 1920-1930 time frame in no time in the history of the stock market has it failed to grow quite a bit in a ten year period, as long as you plan to invest long term you'll almost always come out ahead (of course there are exceptions, some companies tank and other explode, ala microsoft)