Dow Jones 30 Companies

/shrug My wife worked there for a decade as a programmer. I worked at similar firms for 25 years. It's just a business that at its core facilitates the transfer of risk - from those who have it and don't want it to those who don't have it and do want it. Every so often nobody wants any risk - financial crisis - and investment banks get stuck with a bunch of risk and nobody who will buy it at any price. Events like 2008 or 1929 occur as the result of borrowing (systemic leverage) used to acquire or finance that risk. Oversimplification? Sure but it's a small text box.

Since 1896, actually. The DJ Industrial Average is actually not the first stock index. That's the DJ Transportation Average (1884). I worked at DJ Indexes for a few years.

Not that this index matters all that much anyway. It's a subjective selection by the Wall Street Journal, and is hardly a sufficient representation of the whole US market (according to Wikipedia). I think it's more of a prestige thing.

26 out of 30 this time.

I think it's because the official name of CAT is Caterpiller, and of DOW is Dow, inc., but IBM is just IBM? Not a difference for DOW but I appreciated the CAT hint as well, and I think IBM could also be added for consistency's sake. It's better than making the quiz harder than it is.