The lead story at CNBC last night was this:

Dow 10K: Celebrating 10 Years of 0% Return
Congratulations investors. The Dow has hit 10,000 on October 14th, 2009. You now have made officially 0 percent return if you invested in this index when the Dow first hit this magical level in 1999.

According to the official website, the total return of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from March 29, 1999 (the first close above 10,000) to October 14, 2009 was actually 26.23%:

Dow Jones Industrial Average Cumulative Return
Generated by Dow Jones Indexes on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:07:42 GMT
begindate
29-Mar-99
beginindexvalue
10006.77668
enddate
14-Oct-09
endindexvalue
10015.86127
cumulativepricereturnpercentage
0.090784426
begintrindexvalue
13867.60489
endtrindexvalue
17504.40321
cumulativetotalreturnpercentage
26.22513655

The “story” turns out to be an op-ed piece written by Michael A. Yoshikami, described at the end of the article as “Ph.D., CFP®, is Founder, President, and Chief Investment Strategist of YCMNET Advisors, Inc., a registered investment advisory firm (www.ycmnet.com). He oversees all investment and research activities of YCMNET. He is a respected lecturer speaking frequently on market issues, tactical asset allocation, and investment strategy. Michael and YCMNET were ranked as one of the top investment 100 advisors in the United States for 2009 by Barrons. He appears regularly on CNBC and CNBC Asia.”
I’m asking myself why Mr. Yoshikami conveniently ignored the facts? If he simply doesn’t know about the total return index, then I would have serious questions about his qualifications. If he intentionally chose to ignore it, what was the purpose for doing so?
MORE: The Dow Jones Industrial Average: The Impact of Fixing Its Flaws [DOWNLOAD PDF]