Word: divisor
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...industrial average. Actually, the Dow-Jones is not a dollar average at all, but a point average. Dow statisticians calculate it by totaling the per-share value of 30 prime industrial stocks (among them: Du Pont, General Motors, General Electric, U.S. Steel), then dividing the sum by a "constant divisor" which they adjust to account for stock splits. Currently, the divisor stands at 4.566, meaning that each point in the average is equal to $1 divided by 4.566, or about 22?. Thus, a 6-point jump is only about $1.32 in actual dollar value, a fact some amateurs learn...