3 July 1884: Dow Jones launches the world’s first stock index

On 3 July 1884, the world’s first stock index, the Dow Jones Transportation Index, was published by Charles Dow.

On 3 July 1884, the world's first stock index, the Dow Jones Transportation Index, was published by Charles Dow.

The index was made up of 11 transportation stocks, including nine railway companies. The average was calculated by adding the price of all the shares, and dividing them by the number of stocks.

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Ben Judge

Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.

Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin. 

As an early adopter of bitcoin, Ben bought when the price was under $200, but went on to spend it all on foolish fripperies.