Why You Keep Chasing the Wrong Stock Market

Trying to make up for stock market losses can be costly, impulsive and misguided, and the Dow isn’t necessarily your best metric

If you’re like most investors, you can probably guess roughly where the Dow Jones Industrial Average is at a given moment, but that doesn’t mean you know how well the stock market is doing.

That can obscure your view of your own performance and distort your decisions. 

This year’s stock market is split in two. One consists of a few big technology...