You'll Never Find a Railroad on the Dow

By Anders Bylund – Dec 23, 2013 at 2:03PM

DJINDICES: ^DJI

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Market Cap

Today's Change

(0.56%) $211.02

Current Price

$37,986.40

Price as of April 19, 2024, 4:20 p.m. ET

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is actually just one of several Dow Jones market trackers. Have you even heard of the others?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.56%) is just one of several Dow Jones market trackers. The secular index will never invite any tickers from the railroading, airline, or electrical utilities industries -- because there are separate Dow indexes for these sectors.

If you want to track these industries, you'll have to look for the Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJINDICES: DJT) or Dow Jones Utility Average (DJINDICES: ^DJU) instead. There's even a composite index that brings all 65 tickers together.

In the video below, Fool analyst Anders Bylund explains why you'll never see Duke Energy (DUK 2.41%) and its $48 billion market cap on the DJIA, nor the even larger Union Pacific (UNP 0.99%) railroad.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund and The Motley Fool have no position in any stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.