Established in 1971, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations System (NASDAQ) is the world’s oldest electronic stock exchange, and originally operated as a computer bulletin board system. Today, the exchange has evolved and is the largest fully electronic stock market that lists nearly 4000 companies. The exchange is owned by the NASDAQ OMX Group which also owns the OMX stock exchange network which operates eight exchanges in the Nordic and Baltic countries.
NASDAQ became the first stock exchange to offer online trading as early as 1971, and as such NASDAQ declared themselves “the stock market for the next hundred years”. This statement highlighted not only the prestige of the exchange but the reputation of the listed companies who are involved in the technology sector. Unlike the NYSE, there is no physical trading floor, as strictly 100% of the trading occurs virtually through the use of market makers and ECNs.
NASDAQ is home to approximately 3,300 companies with a combined value of around $6 trillion with a total average trading volume of around 2 billion shares a day. The NASDAQ exchange is smaller than the NYSE because of much laxer regulations and lower minimum standards.
NASDAQ is home to many of the world’s largest technology, pharmaceutical, banking and telecommunication companies from all over the world, truly making it a global exchange. As an example, Israel has around 50 companies listed on the NASDAQ, the largest being TEVA Pharmaceuticals who is the largest generic drug manufacturer in the world. Some of the largest and most recognizable companies that trade on the NASDAQ are:
| Name |
Ticker |
Country |
Sector |
Market Cap |
| Apple |
AAPL |
USA |
Computer manufacturing |
$430.34 Billion |
|
GOOG |
USA |
Computer software: programming, data, processing. |
$247.65 Billion | |
| Amazon.com | AMZN |
USA |
Catalog/specialty distribution |
$117.93 Billion |
| Research In Motion | RIMM |
Canada |
Telecommunications equipment |
$8.21 Billion |
| Vodafone Group | VOD | United Kingdom |
Telecommunications equipment |
$26.63 Billion |
| Garmin | GRMN | Switzerland |
Industrial machinery/components |
$8.03 Billion |
| eBay Inc | EBAY | USA |
Business services |
$72.02 Billion |
| America Movil S.A.B | AMOV | Mexica | Telecommunications
equipment |
$96.5 Billion |
| Celgene Corporation | CELG | United States | Major Pharmaceutical |
$41.96 Billion |
| CME Group | CME | United States | Futures Exchange |
$19.3 Billion |
