Descriptive Statistics of Dow & Nasdaq data collected for the last 4 years

1)Dow

	DJIA CLOSE	DJIA VOLUME
Mean	9978.235208	19318488333
Standard Error	142.6496977	650235551.8
Median	10431.2	19294555000
Mode	#N/A	#N/A
Standard Deviation	988.3060965	4504964050
Sample Variance	976748.9404	2.02947E+19
Kurtosis	-0.42900199	-1.055552267
Skewness	-0.74780547	0.110829313
Range	3958.03	16329470000
Minimum	7539.07	11477140000
Maximum	11497.1	27806610000
Sum	478955.29	9.27287E+11
Count	48	48

• From the table it can see that the average closing value of the Dow for the last 4 years was 9978.23 and the average number of shares that were traded was 19.31 Billion.
• It can also be seen that 50% of the time, the Dow closed at a value of 10431(Median) or higher and volume of shares traded was 19.29B or higher.

• Variance for the closing value was 976748 and standard deviation was 988.30.

Also when we plot a histogram of the volume of shares traded on any given day, and closing values of the Dow , we get approximate bell shaped curves, but both these curves are skewed to the right.

2) Nasdaq

	NCLOSE	NVOLUME
Mean	2578.621042	28465063958
Standard Error	126.3498151	1497498523
Median	2374.715	30830715000
Mode	2470.52	#N/A
Standard Deviation	875.3771969	10374974102
Sample Variance	766285.2368	1.0764E+20
Kurtosis	-0.28	-1.28
Skewness	0.89	0.21
Range	3197.89	35661700000
Minimum	1498.8	13738080000
Maximum	4696.69	49399780000
Sum	123773.81	1.36632E+12
Count	48	48

• From the descriptive statistics for Nasdaq we can see that the average closing was 2578 and the average number of shares traded was 28.46 Billion.
• 50% of the time, the Nasdaq closed at a value of 2374 or higher and the volume of shares traded was 30.83 Billion or higher
• The variance for the closing values of the Nasdaq is 766285 and standard deviation.
• Histogram of the closing values of the Nasdaq show an approximate bell shaped curve that is skewed to the left, where as a histogram of the volume of shares indicates 2 or 3 peaks.

An interesting point to observe is that the standard deviation as a percentage of the mean is around 10% for the Dow’s closing values as compared to almost 30%. That means that if we were to assume a normal distribution for these 2 closing values, the Nasdaq closing values would vary by almost 90 % on either side of the mean (+ or – 3 sigma), which indicates a very high volatility for the Nasdaq in the last 4 months.