Which of these is the regular S&P and NASDAQ?

[Boho]

I hear about the S&P 500 and NASDAQ and that's what I use to determine whether the market is up or down and how foreign stocks compare. But I need the codes to display them on Stockcharts.com. Which ones of these is for the S&P and NASDAQ that you hear about in the news?

Oh, wait, NASDAQ and the DJIA are different. I'm new. Any opinions on which I should pay attention to?

$SPX S&P 500 Large Cap Index
$SPXA150 S&P 500 Stocks Above 150 Day Moving Average (EOD)
$SPXA150R S&P 500 Percent of Stocks Above 150 Day Moving Average (EOD)
$SPXA200 S&P 500 Stocks Above 200 Day Moving Average (EOD)
$SPXA200R S&P 500 Percent of Stocks Above 200 Day Moving Average (EOD)
$SPXA50 S&P 500 Stocks Above 50 Day Moving Average (EOD
$SPXA50R S&P 500 Percent of Stocks Above 50 Day Moving Average (EOD)
$SPXADP S&P 500 Advance-Decline Percent (EOD)
$SPXEW S&P 500 Equal Weighted Index
$SPXHILO S&P 500 High-Low Index (EOD)
$SPXHLP S&P 500 New Highs-New Lows Percent (EOD)
$SPXPG S&P 500 Citigroup Pure Growth Index
$SPXPV S&P 500 Citigroup Pure Value Index
$SPXTR S&P 500 Total Return Index
$SPXUDP S&P 500 Volume Advance-Decline Percent (EOD)

$BPINDU DJIA Bullish Percent Index
$BXD DJIA Buywrite Index - CBOE
$DOWHILO DJIA High-Low Index (EOD)
$VXD Volatility Index - CBOE DJIA
!AVE52DJI DJIA Average Price Relative to 52-Wk Hi Lo
!CVIDJI DJIA Climactic Volume Indicator (CVI)
!DWVOLDJI DJIA Dollar-Weighted Volume
!ITPMMBDJI DJIA Percent Buy Index (PBI)
!PIDNDJI DJIA Participation Index-DOWN
!PIUPDJI DJIA Participation Index-UP
!PMOAZDJI DJIA % PMO Above Zero
!PMOBUYDJI DJIA % PMO Xover BUY Signals
!PMORISDJI DJIA % PMO Rising
!STVODJI DJIA Short-Term Volume Osc (STVO)
!UNWINDDJI DJIA Unweighted Index
!UWCHGDJI DJIA Unweighted Index % Change
!UWWRATDJI DJIA Unweighted/Weighted Ratio
!VTODJI DJIA Volume Trend Osc (VTO)

[NW-Bound]

$SPX is the S&P 500. It represents the largest 500 companies in the US, out of more than 4000 public companies actively traded in the exchanges. There are another 15,000 bitty companies near-death that most people do not touch.

$INDU is the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), or the Dow 30. It consists of 30 companies of various industries (banking, manufacturing, retail, etc...) traded on the NY Stock Exchange, and chosen by a committee from a company that used to be McGraw Hill Financial.

$NDX is the Nasdaq 100 Index. It consists of 100 largest companies listed on the Nasdaq Exchange, which traditionally has been the exchange of choice for technology companies.

All 3 are referenced in the media. The DJIA may not represent the real market because it has only 30 companies, but people are most familiar with it due to its longevity, ever since it was invented by Mr. Dow back in late 19-th century.

All 3 indices are often revised and the constituents changed if a company or industry loses its importance. Of course a change in the Dow 30 is more important because the index has so few companies. Still, the choice of the 30 companies is good enough that the DJIA tracks the S&P 500 fairly well.

The Nasdaq being mostly technology companies represents high tech industries. It has more volatility than the S&P and the Dow. In bullish times, it goes up more, and in bad times it goes down more. So, people like to look at it to feel where the market is going.

The Nasdaq and the Dow constituents do not overlap because they are traded on different exchanges. The S&P has both, so is a broader measure.

PS. Oops. The Nasdaq most often quoted is really $COMPQ, which is all of the companies traded on Nasdaq Exchange. NDX is a subset of COMPQ.

PPS. I should have provided a list of Web pages that describe all this more accurately than from my memory.

[Boho]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound PPS. I should have provided a list of Web pages that describe all this more accurately than from my memory.

I found plenty of those. Its the symbols that I couldn't find.

[jwkde]

"The Nasdaq and the Dow constituents do not overlap because they are traded on different exchanges. The S&P has both, so is a broader measure."

There are several overlaps between the 2 indexes (DJ30 and NASDAQ100)

Apple, Cisco, Microsoft and Intel

[NW-Bound]

Thanks for pointing out my error. This is just another sign of old age. Dementia cannot be far away. I thought of something when I wrote the above, and it bothered me a bit but could not recall what it was.

Anyway, the Dow index had to accept some Nasdaq members because there's a dearth of information technology companies on the NY Stock Exchange, and this sector was getting more and more important.

The above 4 Nasdaq companies were added to the index on these dates:

2015 - Apple replacing ATT
2009 - Cisco (and Travelers) replacing General Motors (and Citigroup)
1999 - Microsoft and Intel (and 2 others) replacing 4 existing companies

I knew about MS and Intel, but forgot. I stopped following the news, and did not know about Cisco and Apple.