When the DOW Industrial Market Index first closed over the 10,000 milestone in 1999, brokers on the trading floor celebrated with confetti, baseball caps and party hats. The significance of the event was not lost on brokers who remembered the day in 1973 when the industrial average closed above the 1,000 mark for a brief period during a sustained bear market. With the DOW inching toward 10,000 again (reaching the mark briefly in mid-October 2009), many individuals are wondering—what does the milestone mean in today’s market?