Update: dictionary.com says twice a year... it continues with the definition with every two years: Biennial. In Britain, it seems, it might mean both... but in the U.S. biannual means twice a year.
We're talking about the price-to-earnings, or P/E, ratio. The current 12-month forward P/E ratio is 16.8, FactSet's John Butters said on Friday. This P/E ratio is above the 5-year average (13.8) and the 10-year average (14.1).. But just because stocks are expensive relative to their long-term average is no guarantee that prices are doomed to fall immediately.
the price to earnings ratio of the dow jones industrial average index is the value of the index divided by total earnings of the stocks that make up the index even though the index began in 1896 the year 1929 is a commonly used reference point for any long term average because of the 1929 stock market crash