How are stocks picked for the DJIA? The editors of The Wall Street Journal select the components of the industrial average. They take a broad view of what industrial means, too; in essence, it is almost any company that isn't in the transportation business or isn't a utility (because there also are Dow Jones Averages for those kinds of stocks). In choosing a new company for the DJIA, they look among substantial industrial companies with a history of successful growth and wide interest among investors. The components of the DJIA are not changed often. It isn't a "hot stock" index, after all, and the Journal editors believe that stability of composition enhances the trust that many people have in the averages. The most frequent reason for changing a stock is that something is happening to one of the components, such as being acquired. Whenever one stock is changed, the rest are reviewed.