when it started the value of the index was 1404 60 points on base date dec 31 1980 with a total market capitalization of 1 404 596 billion on that date each point on the index was equal to 1 billion but divisor adjustments due to corporate actions and index composition changes have changed the relationship over time 
the index increased more than 10 times over in less than 20 years closing at a record high of 14 751 64 points on march 24 2000 that level wasn t surpassed until feb 20 2007 on april 20 2007 the index closed above 15 000 for the first time on that day the s p 500 was still several percentage points below its march 2000 high because small cap issues absent from the s p 500 and included in the wilshire 5000 outperformed the large cap issues that dominate the s p 500 during the cyclical bull market the index reached an all time high on oct 9 2007 at the 15 806 69 point level right before the onset of the great recession on oct 8 2007 the wilshire 5000 closed below 10 000 for the first time since 2003 the index continued trading downward toward a 13 year low reaching a bottom of 6 858 43 points on march 9 2009 representing a loss of about 10 9 trillion in market capitalization from its highs in 2007 the wilshire 5000 hit its first intraday high over 20 000 points on feb 28 2014 on march 4 the index closed above this milestone for the first time on july 1 2014 the index closed above the 21 000 level for the first time as of feb 1 2022 the index traded at a near all time high level of over 45 000 other broad market indexesthe wilshire 5000 may still be the most widely cited broad based market index but several other important broad indices also exist such as the crsp us total market index like the wilshire 5000 the crsp us total market index also strives to represent a full picture of u s equities with almost 4 000 holdings representing mega large small and micro capitalizations the dow jones u s total market index dwcf is a market capitalization weighted index that dow jones indexes maintains that provides broad based coverage of the u s stock market the dow jones u s market index considered a total market index includes all u s common market equities that meet certain eligibility requirements the russell 3000 index is another market capitalization weighted equity index maintained by ftse russell that provides exposure to the entire u s stock market the index tracks the performance of the 3 000 largest u s traded stocks which represent about 98 of all u s incorporated equity securities 