The Dow In Pictures

From Chart of the Day.com

"Almost four years to the day after the Dow made its ultimate financial crisis low, the Dow officially posts a new all-time record high -- a rather remarkable feat considering where both the market and the economy were not so long ago. For some perspective, today's chart illustrates the trend of the non-inflation-adjusted Dow from 1990 to the present. As the chart illustrates, the stock market has been especially volatile as it navigated through a couple of historic boom bust cycles (i.e. dot-com boom and bust of 1995-2002 followed by the credit boom and bust of 2002-2009). As for the post-financial crisis rally, it stands out for the obstacles that it had to overcome (e.g. housing market plunge, near financial meltdown, European sovereign debt crisis, etc.) with the Dow still being able to more than double since its March 2009 low. All in all, it has been an impressive and resilient performance."

My Comment:  Notice that the volatility has decreased as confidence has returned to the system.  Traders love volatility.  Investors basically hate it.

Link:  www.chartoftheday.com-The Dow.

*Long ETFs related to the Dow Jones Industrial Average in certain client accounts.