This month marks the 10th anniversary of licensing and listing futures and options on the Dow Jones Industrial Average – the world’s most frequently quoted and longest-serving market indicator of its kind.
In October 1997, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the first index to be licensed for an investment vehicle, beginning with Chicago Board Options Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade futures. Since then, Dow Jones Indexes has launched thousands of indexes, many of which have become the foundation for popular investment vehicles worldwide.
The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes, for example, were introduced in 1999 as the first benchmarks to represent Islamic-compliant portfolios. Today the series encompasses more than 70 indexes and remains the most comprehensive family of Islamic market measures.
“Millions of investors and billions of dollars of investment and risk-management capital have come to rely on Dow Jones Indexes’ products in the last decade,” said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. “We were excited 10 years ago about the future and are even more excited today as we look ahead to new indexes to bring valuable new investment tools to every corner of the globe.”
Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones STOXX Indexes have more than 800 licensees that have created almost 19,000 products using indexes as the basis for their investment vehicles. There are thousands of indexes available for use and more than $2.1 trillion in assets are tied to Dow Jones and Dow Jones STOXX Indexes. There are approximately $50 billion in assets tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.