Historical Statistics Of The Dow Jones Industrials Average

What follows is the result of some number crunching on my part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average between October 1928 and January 2009. I look at gaps, the frequency of gaps, average daily percentage return, and historical dates of significance.

General Statistics

• There were 21075 trading days between October 1928 and January 2009
• Average daily percentage return was +0.02%
• There have been 14611 (68%) no gap days
• There have been 2722 (13%) gap up days
• There have been 2844 (19%) gap down days
• Average daily range was 1.82%
• Average gap up percent was +0.30%
• Average gap down percent was -0.24%
• Average percent move from open to high was 0.92%
• Average percent move from open to low was -0.90%
• When the DJIA gaps up, it finishes up 79% of the time
• When the DJIA gaps up, it finishes down 21% of the time
• When the DJIA gaps down, it finishes up 26% of the time
• When the DJIA gaps down it finishes down 74% of the time

Historical Dates

• Worst percentage daily loss was -22% on October 19, 1987
• Best percentage daily gain was +15% on March 15, 1933
• Worst daily point loss was -777 on September 29, 2008
• Best daily point gain was +936 on October 13, 2008
• Biggest day range was 28% on October 19, 1987
• Smallest day range was 0.31% on May 15, 1944 and April 14, 1944
• Worst gap down day was -4.8% on September 26, 1955
• Best gap up day was +6.0% on October 21, 1987

Visual Representation of DJIA Historical Prices

To make the discussion above easier to visualize, you can use this as a general guide.

About Kerry Kobashi

Kerry is the founder of KerryOnWorld. He lives in Silicon Valley and has worked as an engineer and project manager. He owns Kobashi Computing a consulting company.