Since mid-December, various media outlets have been frantically tracking the Dow Jones as it approaches the 20,000 mark for the first time. But what does hitting 20K really mean for the index, and the market as a whole? Over the last month or so, the financial media has been enthralled in a collective mania over one number – 20,000. That’s because the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the second oldest stock market index in the world, has been hovering around that marker for a while now, and it seems like all other news must take a backseat until that number is hit. When it comes to the financial world, numerical milestones are pretty facetious. Will the world really be in much better shape when the Dow hits 20,000 points than when it hit 19,999.63 earlier this month? Of course not. But in the base-10 numeral system we operate in, those pretty round numbers are always going to attract attention. The real problem is with the Dow Jones Industrial Average itself, which, as I hope y