Abstract What comes to mind when you hear the word "NASDAQ”? Do you think of a global electronic marketplace for the buying and selling of stock? Do you think of a number, a market indicator, which tells you how well the stock market performed on a given day? Do you picture the ticker on the market tower in Times Square, glowing bright and blue? Don't worry; there is no one answer. NASDAQ is all of these things and more.
What comes to mind when you hear the word "NASDAQ" or see it in print? Do you think of a global electronic marketplace for the buying and selling of stock? Do you think of a number, a market indicator that tells you how well the stock market performed on a given day? Do you picture our market tower in Times Square, glowing bright and blue? Don't worry; there is no one answer. NASDAQ is all of these things and more. NASDAQ began forty years ago at the National Association of Securities Dealers, or NASD. The NASD wanted to create a way for investors to buy and sell stocks on a computerized, transparent, and fast system. This would eliminate the burden and inefficiency of in-person stock transactions, which had been the prevalent model for nearly a century. The NASD believed that investors could make more money by closing the price gaps between buyers and sellers, and technology had evolved enough at that point to make it happen. On February 8, 1971, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (NASDAQ) went live with median quotes for 2,500 over-the-counter securities. As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of electronic trading, we are proud that the revolutionary, disruptive model that the NASD developed in 1971 is now the standard for markets worldwide. In our early years, we gave growth companies the opportunity to raise capital that wasn’t previously available to them. Those companies (Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Dell, to name a few) used the capital raised on The NASDAQ Stock Market to make the cutting edge products that are now integral to our daily lives. These companies have also created millions of jobs around the world along the way.
Today, the NASDAQ OMX Group is a leading provider of trading, exchange technology, information and public company services across six continents. Through its diverse portfolio of solutions, NASDAQ OMX enables customers to plan, optimize and execute their business vision with confidence, using proven technologies that provide transparency and insight for navigating today’s global capital markets. As the creator of the world’s first electronic stock market, its technology powers more than 70 marketplaces in 50 countries, and 1 in 10 of the world's securities transactions. NASDAQ OMX is home to more than 3,400 listed companies with a market value of over $8.5 trillion and more than 10,000 corporate clients. In 2006, NASDAQ completed its separation from the NASD and began to operate as a national securities exchange. The next year (2007), NASDAQ combined with the powerful Scandinavian exchange group OMX and officially became The NASDAQ OMX Group, further demonstrating its commitment to technology and innovation across global markets. The NASDAQ is a global electronic marketplace for buying and selling securities, as well as the benchmark index for U.S. technology stocks. Nasdaq was created by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) to enable investors to trade securities on a computerized, speedy and transparent system, and commenced operations on February 8, 1971. The term “Nasdaq” is also used to refer to the Nasdaq Composite, an index of more than 3,000 stocks listed on the Nasdaq exchange that includes the world’s foremost technology and biotech giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, Intel and Amgen. Headquartered in New York, Nasdaq OMX operates 26 markets – primarily equities, and also including options, fixed income, derivatives and commodities – as well as