You can look at the Dow and see new highs or you can parse it in as many ways as you want. Some have suggested that we are already at new highs when you factor in the changing composition of the Dow membership. David Briggs from Federated just downplayed the whole thing saying that the Dow is way below the historic high if you calculate it based upon the Euro (and other currencies I guess). Most investing professionals care very little about the Dow so they inevitably point to the S&P 500 benchmark and suggest that the true market has a long way to go before it gets back to historical highs. Tech stock lovers really don’t want to talk about the Dow given that it would be too painful to equate it to their favorite, the Nasdaq Composite which is still 50% off its own historical highs.

Like any other bit of statistical data, you can twist it into any shape you want. I have no idea why any of this is worthy of more than a cursory analysis but I’ll leave that up to people that seem to have a lot more time to waste than I do. Each trade above a historical high is a new high. How long will we have to suffer the distraction if this thing keeps going up? Realistically, I doubt it will last very long because then we will switch to an infatuation with Dow 12,000. So enjoy the drama of the moment and parse it in as many ways as you can.