average investment & finance definition

A number arrived at by totaling a set of values and then dividing that sum by the number of values in the set. Averages, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), are cited as a measure of the stock market’s performance. To arrive at the DJIA, the prices of the 30 stocks in the DJIA are added and divided by an adjusted divisor whose value is printed daily in the Wall Street Journal.