Help Mitigate Loss with a Diversified Portfolio

Many people watch the news every night and look at how the Dow and the S&P 500 ended that day. They see it up or down and think their portfolio should be the same. Simply put, in most cases that is not the case and, in my opinion, should not be the case.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average that we see on TV represents 30 companies. That's it -- 30. There are thousands of companies out there, yet the Dow represents 30 of those. I have often asked the following question to clients: How many companies are in the Dow 30? People give me many answers, and most do not say 30. The same is for the S&P 500 index, which is also seen on TV daily. It represents 500 large-cap companies, yet there are