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Financial Dictionary - NASDAQ

NASDAQ

NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation) is the largest electronic stock exchange in the United States.

It includes companies from the so-called “New Economy” (electronics, IT, telecoms and biotechnology), whether US or foreign. These are the two main differences with respect to other markets or indices such as the Dow Jones (industrials) or the S&P 500 (generalist), which also do not include companies registered outside the United States.

It features the world's largest tech companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Tesla, Netflix, Amazon and Baidu.

Although its head office is in New York, it does not have a physical location, but is hosted by a telecommunications network. It was established in response to calls from the US Congress for increased scrutiny and regulation of the securities markets, given the widespread lack of transparency in the markets for OTC securities (i.e. those that are not traded on stock exchanges).

Thus, in 1970 it became the world’s first electronic stock exchange, and started operating 100% electronically in 1987.

There are indices of Nasdaq-listed companies, such as the NASDAQ-100, which includes the 100 largest non-financial companies traded on the Nasdaq measured by capitalisation; or the NASDAQ Composite, featuring more than 2,500 companies.


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