The Dow’s Decimals

I was curious to see if there’s any strange pattern to the decimals in the daily closings of the Dow. It turns out, there aren’t any. At least, not that I could find.
I looked at the daily closings for the past 10,000 trading sessions, which is roughly 40 years. I figured that each “hundredth” (i.e., .01, .02, .03) should have about 100 each.
It looks like they do. Here are the results:

The table goes from left to right, from .00 to .99. Double Zero comes on at 100 even, although .01 has the fewest with 78 days. The most is .13 with 126.
Here’s how they break down:
.13………126
.77………119
.14………118
.25………116
.78………116
.15………114
.45………114
.68………114
.04………113
.43………113
.41………112
.59………112
.56………111
.70………111
.10………110
.12………110
.20………109
.36………109
.98………109
.11………108
.18………108
.64………108
.79………108
.92………108
.32………107
.63………107
.65………107
.48………106
.97………106
.23………105
.27………105
.44………105
.74………105
.83………105
.84………105
.09………104
.55………104
.57………104
.99………104
.21………103
.61………103
.72………103
.90………103
.37………102
.54………102
.71………102
.95………102
.46………101
.53………101
.00………100
.06………100
.42………100
.82………100
.89………100
.07………99
.29………99
.34………99
.85………99
.08………98
.31………98
.69………98
.26………97
.75………97
.87………97
.03………96
.30………96
.35………96
.50………96
.51………96
.67………96
.91………94
.19………93
.52………93
.86………92
.28………91
.47………91
.49………91
.81………91
.88………91
.94………91
.05………90
.40………90
.80………90
.16………89
.24………89
.66………89
.73………89
.22………88
.39………88
.62………88
.38………87
.60………87
.76………87
.02………86
.96………86
.93………84
.58………82
.17………81
.33………80
.01………78
Seven of the top 21 begin with 1, which could be the result of Benford’s Law.
And to answer your e-mails: Yes, the plot of Office Space was the inspiration for this post.

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 23rd, 2006 at 11:05 pm

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