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CFDs are complex instruments. 72% of retail client accounts lose money when trading CFDs, with this investment provider. You can lose your money rapidly due to leverage. Please ensure you understand how this product works and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing money.
CFDs are complex instruments. 72% of retail client accounts lose money when trading CFDs, with this investment provider. You can lose your money rapidly due to leverage. Please ensure you understand how this product works and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing money.

How to trade or invest in the Dow Jones

How to trade the Dow Jones

The Dow Jones Industrial Index, or simply the Dow, is one of the most well-known indices in the world, and home to some of the mightiest stocks on the NYSE and NASDAQ. Learn how to trade the Dow Jones with us.

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Start trading today. Call +44 (20) 7633 5430, or email sales.en@ig.com to talk about opening a trading account. We’re here 24/5.

Contact us: +44 (20) 7633 5430

Start trading today. Call +44 (20) 7633 5430, or email sales.en@ig.com to talk about opening a trading account. We’re here 24/5.

Contact us: +44 (20) 7633 5430

If you’d like to trade the Dow Jones, follow these three steps, or discover our full guide below:

1. Decide how you'd like to trade on the index

There are several ways to gain exposure to the Dow Jones. The most popular include trading ETFs or trading on the index’s value.

2. Create a trading plan

If you’re planning on trading on the Dow Jones, you'll need to decide whether you're a short- or long-term trader – and how you're going to manage your risk.

3. Open a live account

Open and fund a CFD trading account – just fill in our application form.

How can you trade the Dow Jones index?

With us, there are a number of ways to get exposure to the Dow Jones, including trading our proprietary Wall Street market.

You can:

Trade our Wall Street market (based on the Dow Jones)

Using our platform, you can trade our Wall Street market – an exclusive product based on the performance of the Dow Jones. Trading on the index’s price is more liquid than trading it in other ways, and you can trade it 7 days a week.
You’d trade our market’s price levels on leverage using CFDs without having to own any actual shares. With derivatives, you can go long (buy) or short (sell) on the asset price. You’ll put down an initial deposit (called margin) to open a larger position, with profits and losses calculated on the full position size, not your deposit. Note that this means your profits or losses could outweigh your deposit amount substantially.

CFDs are commission-free when you trade our Wall Street market, as charges are included in the spread and overnight interest fees. For all charges please go to our cost and charges page.

Open a CFD account to trade the Wall Street

Trade Dow Jones ETFs

You can get broad exposure to the entire index by trading an ETF that tracks the price of the Dow. This means you won’t trade on the current price of the Dow Jones, but rather the ETF’s price, calculated on its net asset value (NAV).

Trade Dow Jones ETFs on leverage with CFDs, but bear in mind this offers lower liquidity and higher spreads than trading the index directly (as in our above explanation). Leveraged trades mean you can go long or short on ETFs. However, again, total profits or losses can significantly outweigh your margin amount, as both are based on the total position size.

Open an account to trade ETFs

Trade Dow Jones shares

With us, you can also trade the actual shares listed on the Dow Jones index – including the likes of Apple and Microsoft.

Here, you can sharpen your focus by trading specific Dow Jones stocks without having exposure to the entire index. This means you can choose your shares based on your personal trading strategy.

However, if you’ve got a certain Dow Jones company in mind, you can also trade Dow Jones companies using CFDs. These are leveraged trades, so you can go long or short.

Share CFDs attract a minimum commission of $15.

Open an account to trade Dow Jones shares
Trading the Dow Jones index directly Trading a Dow Jones ETF Trading Dow Jones shares
Account types CFD trading account. CFD trading account. CFD trading account.
Market hours You can trade our Wall Street market 24 hours a day Monday to Friday and until 6am on Saturday, and also our exclusive Weekend Wall Street market from 4pm on Saturday to 6.40am on Sunday as well as 4pm from Sunday to 6.40am on Monday (UTC+8).

If US-listed, when the New York Stock Exchange is open - 10.30pm to 5am, Monday to Thursday and 10.30pm on Friday to 5am on Saturday (UTC+8).

Markets for all sessions stocks are available from 4pm to 8am, Monday to Thursday and 4pm Friday to 5am Saturday (UTC+8).

When the New York Stock Exchange is open – 10.30pm to 5am, Monday to Thursday and 10.30pm on Friday to 5am on Saturday (UTC+8).

Markets for all sessions stocks are available from 4pm to 8am, Monday to Thursday and 4pm Friday to 5am Saturday (UTC+8).

See our after-hours times to trade on top Dow Jones 30 stocks like Apple, Microsoft, Nike, Visa and more.

Timeframe Short to medium term. Short to medium term for trading. Short to medium term for trading.
Liquidity and execution 0.0014 second execution speed and unique deep liquidity Higher liquidity offered by trading the index directly. Higher liquidity offered by trading the index directly.
Costs Commission-free, charges in the spread.
Trading the Dow Jones on the spot (cash) incurs overnight fees, but index futures don’t incur these fees.
Commission charge of 2 cents per share. Cash (spot) ETF trades incur overnight fees, but none for ETF forwards. Minimum $15 commission for share CFD trade.
Cash (spot) trading incurs overnight fees.

How to start trading the Dow Jones

If you’re ready to start trading the Dow Jones, follow these four steps:

  1. Create your trading account
  2. Learn what moves the Dow Jones’s price
  3. Perfect your Dow Jones strategies
  4. Discover what else you need to know about the Dow Jones index

Create your trading account

You can open a CFD trading account to begin trading on our platform.

Trading CFDs on the Dow Jones

CFDs (contracts for difference) enable you to enter into a contract to speculate on the Dow Jones index via our proprietary Wall Street market, or the share price of Dow Jones-listed companies. The amount the index or share price rises or falls (so, the difference between the price when you open your position versus when you close it) determines your profit or loss.

Trading CFDs on our Wall Street market: cash indices

You can trade CFDs on our Wall Street market using spot price trading (known as cash trading in our platform). The spot (cash) price is derived from futures’ prices, with a fair value adjustment to get as close to the real-time cash price of the index as possible.

Trading CFDs on the spot (cash) price means you don’t pay any commission charges, and spreads are lower than the futures price, although overnight funding fees apply (unlike with futures). This means cash prices are often best suited to short-term trading strategies, which won’t require leaving a position open for longer than one day.

To open a spot (cash) position:

  1. Go to the CFD trading platform
  2. Select the Wall Street index under ‘Indices’
  3. Decide whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
  4. Choose your deal size in terms of number of contracts
  5. Set your stops and limits
  6. Click ‘place deal’ to open your position
screenshot of IG platform and how to trade the Dow Jones via CFDs

Trading CFDs on our Wall Street market: index futures

You can also trade CFD futures with us, which don’t attract the same overnight funding charges that cash (spot) trading does. Trading index futures via CFDs means you’re agreeing to trade the market at a specific price on a specific date in the future. This is commission-free, with wider spreads than you’ll find on cash markets.

To open a futures position:

  1. Go to the CFD trading platform
  2. Select the Wall Street index under ‘Indices’
  3. Choose ‘Futures’ instead of ‘Cash’ to trade and select your preferred date range
  4. Decide whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
  5. Choose your deal size in terms of number of contracts
  6. Set your stops and limits
  7. Click ‘place deal’ to open your position
How to trade or invest in the Dow Jones: CFD futures

Trading CFDs on our Wall Street market: options

With options you have the right, but not the obligation, to exercise the contract on or before its expiry date. When you trade options via CFDs, you’ll pay an initial deposit to open a larger position. You’ll then speculate on the option’s price for a profit or loss – with both able to significantly outweigh your deposit amount as profits and losses are calculated on the full position size.

Buying options is limited risk as you’ll only risk as much as the margin you pay, but selling options incurs significantly more risk. Selling a call option is technically unlimited risk, as there’s no restriction to how much a market’s price can rise.

To open a CFD options position:

  1. Go to the CFD trading platform
  2. Click on ‘Options’ instead of ‘Indices’
  3. Choose ‘Indices’ as your asset class and select ‘Wall Street’
  4. Decide on your preferred maturity date range – daily, weekly or monthly
  5. Select a call or put option, and whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
  6. Choose the size of your position
  7. Set your stops and limits
  8. Click ‘place deal’ to open the position
screenshot demonstrating how to trade wall street options

Trading CFDs on Dow Jones: ETFs

If you’d like to trade CFDs, but would like broad exposure to a variety of different Dow Jones stocks all in one trade, then you could trade ETFs with us. Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are investment instruments that track the performance of a basket of Dow Jones stocks.

ETF commissions start from 2 cents per share on each side of a CFD trade with a minimum fee of $15 for online orders. Just remember, because you’ll be trading on the cash (spot) price, you’ll incur overnight fees if your position is left open longer than a day.

To open a Dow Jones ETF position:

  1. Go to the CFD trading platform
  2. Select ‘ETFs’ instead of ‘Indices’
  3. Click on a Dow Jones-related ETF, for example the iShares Dow Jones Industrial Average UCITS ETF
  4. Decide whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
  5. Choose your deal size in terms of number of contracts
  6. Set your stops and limits
  7. Click ‘place deal’ to open your position
screenshot demonstrating how to trade the Dow Jones

Trading CFDs on the Dow Jones: shares

If you’d like to trade certain Dow Jones stocks instead, you could trade shares using CFDs.

CFD share trades are leveraged, meaning you’ll put down a small deposit (called margin) to open a larger position and speculate on that Dow Jones company’s share price.

In this way, your initial CFD share trade margin costs a fraction of what it would to buy shares. Just remember that profits and losses are calculated based on the total position size, not your margin amount, and can outweigh your margin significantly.

When you choose CFD share trading, you can enjoy very low spreads. CFD trades on US shares also attract a minimum commission charge of $15 online. You’ll also be trading on the spot (cash) price with share CFDs, so remember that you’ll incur overnight funding charges if your position is left open for longer than a day.

To open a Dow Jones company shares position:

  1. Go to the CFD trading platform
  2. Select ‘Shares’ instead of ‘Indices’ or ‘ETFs’
  3. Click on your chosen company, for example Apple
  4. Decide whether you want to buy (go long) or sell (go short)
  5. Choose your deal size in terms of number of contracts
  6. Set your stops and limits
  7. Click ‘place deal’ to open your position
How to trade or invest in the Dow Jones: trading CFDs on stocks

Learn what moves the Dow Jones’ price

If you want to make a profit trading the Dow Jones, you’ll need to open and close positions at just the right time. For this, it’s essential to have a good understanding of what moves the Dow Jones index’s price.

Here are a few of the main factors that will drive the index price up or down:

Strength of the dollar

The strength of the US dollar will have an effect on the price of the Dow Jones. A strong dollar often means that the index will rise in value, while a weaker dollar will generally mean it falls.

Value of Dow Jones companies’ shares

As the Dow Jones index is made up of companies on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the NASDAQ, the share prices of those companies will affect the index’s price in turn. As it is a price-weighted index, the performance of companies with a higher share price will have a greater effect over the value of the index compared to those with lower share prices, because they have a greater weighting in how the Dow is valued.

Earnings reports

Similarly to ordinary share prices, Dow Jones companies’ earnings reports will affect the index. Strong earnings in large companies that are heavily weighted in the Dow Jones will often cause an increase in the index’s price, and weak reports will usually mean a decrease.

Economic events

It’s not just the index’s companies themselves that affect the Dow Jones, macroeconomic factors can play a role too. Any geopolitical factors that’ll affect the dollar’s price will likely affect the Dow Jones’ price, too.

News

While macroeconomic events themselves will play a factor, so too will news articles. Widely viewed news, both positive and negative, will affect the index’s price. In particular, news about central bank announcements, changes to fiscal policy in the States and reporting on big events like Coronavirus-related developments or presidential elections will all move the value of the Dow.

Perfect your Dow Jones strategies

There are a few ways you can hone your Dow Jones trading strategy, to ensure the best possible chance of doing well when trading the index. Here are some steps to follow:

  • Choose your trading style: the first thing to determine is whether you’d suit a short-term, medium-term or long-term trading strategy. There are four main trading styles – scalping, day trading, swing trading and position trading
  • Study charts and price action: poring over daily and weekly charts will help you learn the rhythms of the Dow Jones and the market at large, which will help you get a feel for what the index might do going forward and be able to strategise accordingly
  • Look for trading signals: by studying the Dow Jones price chart, you should be able to tell whether the current trend is bullish or bearish. You can confirm current trends with momentum indicators like the stochastic oscillator or relative strength index (RSI)
  • Follow industry news: you shouldn’t only rely on technical analysis to craft your trading strategy, you should also keep an eye on the news. As we’ve said, macroeconomic events and news articles can materially affect the Dow Jones price, so keeping an eye on the headlines is vital for your strategy
  • Set trading alerts: of course, it’s unreasonable to expect yourself to watch the news or the market constantly. That’s why you can also use trading alerts with us, to get automatic prompts when the market’s doing something important to your strategy. Input your chosen alerts when opening a position and you’ll be notified once your alerts are triggered. You can receive trading alerts via email, SMS or push notification on our platform

Discover what else you need to know about the Dow Jones index

There are traders who spend their lives studying the Dow Jones, and with good reason – there’s a lot to know! Here are a few more things you should know before trading the Dow Jones index:

How is the Dow Jones’ price calculated?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average index (or the ‘Dow Jones’ or ‘Dow’ for short) is a collection of the largest blue-chip stocks on the NYSE and the NASDAQ. It’s a price-weighted index. This means that more expensive shares like Apple will determine the Dow Jones’ price more than stocks with lower share prices.

To determine the Dow Jones’ price, the index’s companies’ share prices are added together and divided by a specially calculated divisor number (as a more mathematically accurate substitute for dividing the share prices by the number of stocks there are in the Dow Jones – which is 30). These companies’ shares will have different weightings each depending on how high their share price is. This means that sudden changes in share price of a heavily weighted stock on the Dow Jones, for example on the day earnings reports are released, can significantly affect the Dow Jones’ price.

What are the Dow Jones’ trading hours?

The Dow Jones index is open during New York Stock Exchange hours, from 9.30am to 4pm Eastern Standard Time. This translates to 10.30pm to 5am (UTC+8). Bear in mind, though, that this will change in winter due to daylight savings.

Luckily, with us you can trade the Dow Jones index 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday. You can also trade our exclusive Weekend Wall Street market from 4pm on Saturday to 6.40am on Sunday as well as 4pm from Sunday to 6.40am on Monday (UTC+8).

FAQs

What are the ways you can trade the Dow Jones?

With us, you can trade the Dow Jones index in a number of ways. Open a CFD trading account to trade our Wall Street market, ETFs, shares and more. You can also trade the spot (cash) price or futures (or forwards).

What are the stocks on the Dow Jones?

The Dow Jones index is comprised of 30 stocks, which are widely considered to be the biggest and best in their respective industries. These include Apple, Microsoft, Nike, Coca-Cola, Boeing, Disney, McDonald’s and Johnson & Johnson, among others.

How do companies join the Dow Jones?

The stocks on the Dow Jones index don’t change often and are hand-selected as titans of their industry. That’s because the caretaker of the Dow Jones index, the S&P Dow Jones Indices company, votes on the stocks to include on the Dow Jones via committee. This means companies cannot apply to join the Dow Jones but are independently chosen by members of the S&P Dow Jones Indices.