A price-weighted average is a simple mathematical average of several stock prices, and is often used to construct a price-weighted index. Perhaps the most well-known stock index in the U.S., the Dow ...

Total return indices deserve more attention. They more closely represent what an investor participant actually takes home: the return of an index, plus dividends paid and reinvested in the index.

Created in 1896, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is one of the world's longest-running stock market indexes. There's a great deal of tradition attached to it, and many historical accounts of past ...