Dow Jones vs Dow Jones TR (DIA)
The oldest stock index still followed, set against the fund that actually holds it. The Dow Jones has two peculiarities: it holds only thirty companies, and it weights them by share price — a nineteenth-century convention no index created since has copied.
Over the period both series share, SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF comes out ahead at +9.0% a year.
| Asset | Total return | Annualised | Volatility | Largest drawdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dow Jones Industrial | +544.0% | +6.7% a year | 16.0% | −52.0% (March 2009) |
| SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF | ×12.0 | +9.0% a year | 16.0% | −49.8% (March 2009) |
Figures calculated on 26/10/2026 from monthly closing prices. Past performance is no guide to future performance.
Weighted by price, not by size
In the Dow Jones, a three-hundred-dollar share counts three times as much as a hundred-dollar share, whatever the size of the two businesses behind them. Yet a share price says nothing about a company: it depends on how many shares were issued, which is an accounting decision.
The consequence is disconcerting: a stock split, which changes nothing about the value held, instantly divides that company’s weight in the index. The thirty members are chosen by a committee rather than by a mechanical rule — again, an exception among the major indices.
Why a fund on the other side
DIA, launched in January 1998, holds the thirty names and distributes what they pay every month. The series used here is adjusted for those distributions, so it represents a Dow Jones with dividends reinvested, less the fund’s fees.
The gap against the price index is wider here than on the Nasdaq 100. The Dow’s thirty are for the most part mature, profitable businesses, the kind that have paid out a steady share of their earnings for decades. That is precisely the profile where ignoring dividends costs the most.
Frequently asked questions
Why only thirty companies?
Inheritance. The index held twelve at its creation in 1896 and thirty since 1928, and the number has not moved. There is no statistical justification for it: it is a convention that became a landmark.
Does a stock split move the index?
No: a divisor is adjusted so the index does not jump that day. The company’s weight, however, really is divided from then on, without anything having happened in its accounts.
Why DIA rather than a total-return index?
Because it is the longest public series closest to a Dow with dividends reinvested. It has the further advantage of including the fees actually borne, which a theoretical index ignores.