Let’s get this out of the way first. If you’ve been watching business TV, all they’ve been talking about is the Dow nearing the 20,000 level. Much to their dismay, it came close on Friday but couldn’t make it. The Dow touched 19999.63 before backing off. Historically, big round numbers have acted as magnets during market advances. At the same time, traders are often programmed to take some profits as that big number is approached. The hourly bars in Chart 1 shows how close the Dow Industrials came to the 20K level a couple of times over the last month.