# What Is "The Market"? The Dow, the S&P 500, and the Index Bet You Didn't Choose

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/money-lessons-with-andrew-temte-phd-cfa-6946211/what-is-the-market-the-dow-the-s-p-500-and-the-index-bet-you-didn-t-choose
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/money-lessons-with-andrew-temte-phd-cfa-6946211/what-is-the-market-the-dow-the-s-p-500-and-the-index-bet-you-didn-t-choose.md
Podcast: [Money Lessons with Andrew Temte, PhD, CFA](https://stenobird.com/podcast/money-lessons-with-andrew-temte-phd-cfa-6946211)
Published: 2026-06-27T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://saturdaymorningmuse.podbean.com/e/the-etf-trade-it-like-a-stock-hold-it-like-an-index-fund/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/e52qh93rveybuyvu/ML_627267plfe.mp3
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Duration seconds: 750

## Resource

In this episode of Money Lessons, Andy tackles a phrase we lean on without ever defining it: "the market." He explains what a stock market index is, where the Dow, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq-100 come from, and how each one measures the market differently — the Dow by share price, the others by company size. He unpacks the Dow's hidden divisor and the outsized power of a denominator, shows how a handful of giant companies can carry an entire index, and explains why SpaceX's arrival on the Nasdaq means millions of index-fund holders are about to own a stock they never picked. The lesson: an index is a set of choices, and a fund that tracks one hands you all of them.#financialliteracy #moneylessons #personalfinance #investing #stockmarket #SP500 #DowJones #Nasdaq #indexfunds #SpaceX AndrewTemte.com

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