The Dow Jones Industrial Average is on track to end the day above 44000 for the first time on record Monday. The index added more than 300 points, or about 0.7%, to around 44316 as of midday. The climb from 43000—hit 20 trading days ago—was led by ...

Most indexes, like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, assign a higher weighting to the largest companies by market cap. For example, Apple has roughly 11 times the market cap of Coca-Cola, so it has a much higher weighting in the S&P 500. But in the Dow, Apple is the 12th highest-weighted company by market cap because the index is price-weighted.

The S&P 500 financial index rallied, with banks helping lift the Dow to its highest ever. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Short-term bearish investors can profit from declines in the Dow Jones with ProShares Short Dow30 ETF (DOG), but it's not ideal for long-term investment.

When the Dow Jones was officially incepted on May 26, 1896, it was comprised of a dozen companies, most of which were tied to the industrial sector. Today, it contains an assortment of 30 historically profitable, time-tested, industry-leading businesses.