How the Ratios Are Made
Every number on this site is a plain division of two published prices, from public sources, recomputed on the page. There is no black box — here are the exact formulas, the sources, and the limits.
The formulas
- Dow/Gold
DJIA closing value (points) ÷ gold price (USD per troy ounce)
At a ratio of 12.1, roughly twelve ounces of gold buy the whole Dow. The higher the number, the more ounces of gold the index is worth — that is the entire sentence. - Gold/Silver
gold price (USD/oz) ÷ silver price (USD/oz)
At 69.7, one ounce of gold buys ~70 ounces of silver. Above the long-run average (~60) silver looks cheap relative to gold; below it, the reverse. Both readings are claims with dates, checkable later. - Dow/Palladium
DJIA closing value (points) ÷ palladium price (USD/oz)
Same construction as Dow/Gold, with an industrial metal whose cycles tell a different story than gold's.
Where the numbers come from
The long-run series use MeasuringWorth's data (Officer & Williamson) — daily Dow index values and NY gold market prices, with annual resolution for the multi-century series. Each chart page states its own source and resolution next to the chart, because a number without a source is a rumor.
What the charts do
Long-run comparison charts rebased to 100 at an anchor year (1900) and draw on a log axis, so an equal percentage move is an equal height across centuries. Rebasing is a lens, not a change to the data — the underlying ratio is still the raw division above.
What these ratios are not
- Not predictions. A ratio describes a relationship now; it does not say where it goes next. It only makes the claim checkable.
- Not trading signals. This is analysis, not advice — nothing here is a buy or sell instruction.
- Not inflation-adjusted. The raw ratio is plain prices. Real (inflation-adjusted) comparisons are a different, labeled construction.
- Not immune to composition. The Dow's membership and divisor change over time; a ratio spanning a century inherits those changes.
The position
Markets are noisy, so I believe ratios are the honest scoreboard: prices are what happened, ratios are what it meant. The whole method is public so you can argue with it — that is the feature.