Trader Mike thinks the importance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is overstated, as do I, though for different reasons.

It'd be interesting to see what a market-cap or equal weighted Dow chart would look like. Given the performance of Microsoft (MSFT), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT), GE, and Pfizer Inc. (PFE) -- 4 of the 6 largest -- I doubt that chart would be pretty.

You know, you get a whole different set of concepts working when you consider, say, the DJIA from an investor perspective as Mike does than when you consider it as an indicator for policy decisions (Mike's link, by the way...).