Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is perhaps the most widely quoted of all the market indicators. It tracks the prices of 30 actively traded large-company stocks on the New York Stock Exchange and generalizes its findings to the market as a whole. The main criticism of the DJIA is that it's based on such a small sample of the market.Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500)
The S&P 500 index consists of 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity, and industry group representation. It is a market-value weighted index (stock price times the number of shares outstanding), with each stock's weight in the index proportionate to its market value.The S&P 500 is composed mostly of NYSE-listed companies, with some AMEX and over-the-counter stocks. This index represents about 69% of the value of all U.S. stocks and is a benchmark for the overall stock market.
NASDAQ
The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) is an automated information network that provides dealers and brokers with price quotations on securities traded over-the-counter. NASDAQ is a computerized system that facilitates trading and provides up-to-the-minute price quotations on some 5,000 of the more actively traded over-the-counter stocks.NASDAQ lists more than 5,000 securities. To be a member, a company must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, have at least two market makers (a market maker is a brokerage firm that acts as a principal on either side of an OTC transaction), plus meet minimum requirements for assets, capital, public shares, and shareholders. It publishes two composite price indexes daily, plus bank, insurance, other finance, transportation, utilities, and industrial indexes.