What’s in a Name?

Dow Jones – one (or two) of the most famous names in finance is “Dow Jones”, as in the “Dow Jones Industrial Index”, which is a measure of the overall share prices of thirty large US companies. Charles Dow was a journalist who originally specialised in writing historical articles. He became involved in financial reporting after he was invited to accom-pany wealthy businessmen on a trip to report on silver mining in Colorado. Edward Jones, a statistician skilled at analysing financial statements, met Dow when they worked at a newspaper together. In 1882 they started their own company, producing and selling a two-page business report in New York, which included their popular “Dow Jones stock average”. They later went on to start the famous Wall Street Journal newspaper.