The Dow Jones industrial average hit all-time highs and closed above 19,000 on Tuesday for the first time. That psychological triple-zero barrier suggests more gains are to come should the index close above that mark.

Based on market data from the past 30 years, when the Dow has closed above levels like 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 ... all the way to 18,000, we can expect traders to push it up even higher, according to data from analytics tool Kensho. The Dow doesn't just go up, but it outperforms the S&P 500 along the way.

The trend is true not just for a quick one-week return, but also one-month and one-quarter returns. Here's a full summary of the data, going back to January 1987, when the Dow closed above 2,000 for the first time. That's 17 different instances, all the way through the first close above 18,000 in December 2014.