# Stock market and points

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stock-market-and-points/119116>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 15, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stock-market-and-points/119116 "2002-07-15T20:50:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stock-market-and-points/119116/1 "2002-07-15T20:50:50Z")

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**Stock market and points**

Whenever I hear the financial news (which is as seldom as possible these days), stock prices and daily index averages are always given in terms of points. For example, Stock X was up by 2 1/2 points or, perhpas more realistically, Stock Y (which without fail is a major component of my 401K) is down 4 points. Why aren’t these aforementioned fluctuations referred to as money, i.e. Stock Y’s value dropped by $4.00? Is it psychological so that poor schumcks like myself don’t overreact? Traditional?