The DJIA - How High Can You Go?

The Dow hit another new high this past Thursday. It was up almost 300 points. On Friday, it hit another high. The newspapers and talking heads on CNBC were out with party hats and big announcements to boost their ratings.

But, the Dow is just 30 stocks! How many new highs were there this month for these stocks? 30? 25? 10? 5? Actually, it was only 4. Only 4 stocks out of 30. A mere 13%! But the price of stocks were at the high end of the Dow - CAT, MO, UTX, XOM.

But, let's be fair about this. Let's expand the criteria. How many of the Dow stocks hit new highs this year? 30? 25? 10? 5? Actually, it was 8. Only 8 out of the 30, which is just 25% of all the members.

Something doesn't seem quite right here. And it seems to be the DJIA!

Remember this little lesson for the future. I'll explain why it's important to your portfolio later...