The Stock Market Barometer. English-only reading by default; switch among English, Chinese, and Spanish, or compare languages side by side.
This chapter examines III. Charles H. Dow, and His Theory, using the author’s early-twentieth-century investment framework to explain how investors were expected to judge security quality, income, risk, and market conditions. It opens from the chapter’s own discussion: TO judge from a large number of letters received from readers of past discussions on Dow’s theory of the averages, and on panic and prosperity cycles generally, that theory is assumed to be something in the nature of a sure way to make money in Wall Street. It may be said at once that it bears no resemblance to any “martingale“ or system of beating the bank.
Readers studying financial history, investment education, and the chapter’s specific subject—Dow Theory, martingale, Swings Within Swings—will get the most from this section. It is not suitable as a modern trading or investment checklist.
Read this chapter as historical investment education. The market rules, disclosure practices, securities, commissions, interest-rate conditions, and investor protections around Dow Theory, martingale, Swings Within Swings may differ sharply from modern markets.