Dow Records and Custody Deals

The Dow.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 20,068.51 yesterday, its first close over 20,000, and so as custom demands there were parties and hats and approximately 20,068.51 articles about it. The articles fall into some recognizable categories. There is straightforward glee, or relief: Stocks are up! There is contrarian worry: If stocks are up, they might go down! There are articles explaining how the Dow is calculated, and other articles explaining how dumb it is that the Dow is calculated that way. There are personal-finance advice columns, and comparisons between the state of the Dow and the state of the economy, and worries about the distribution of stock wealth, and reminiscences of the 1980s. As with everything in financial news, there are articles blaming Goldman Sachs. There are -- and this was new to me, frankly -- a certain number of articles about how, while 1,000 is 100 percent of 1,000, it is only 5.3 percent of 19,000. (This one has a chart.) That is the sort of complex mathematical technicality that you have to master, if you are going to follow the Dow like a pro.