It may seem strange, but I haven't had much luck answering this question via Google or other search engines (too much 'noise' in the system), and I think I'll probably get a decent answer sooner here at Mudcat (assuming some of you folkies actually have a day job that pays enough for you to have any dealings with Wall Street). *g*

For years I've heard this, that, and the other about the stock market gaining or dropping so many "points," but I have never heard any semblance of what the hell a "point" on the stock market means. If it's percentage points, then it's percentages of what? What's the baseline?
If it's not percentages, then what is it?

(Yeah, I know, I took Econ. as an undergrad, way back in the Jurassic Period, but if we dealt with this, I apparently slept through it.   I'm finally getting around to asking.)

Genie