What is the NASDAQ?

Answer:
The NASDAQ, or National Association of Securities Dealers and Automatic Quotations Systems,

is an electronic exchange where stocks are traded using an automated network. Generally, most technology stocks are traded on the NASDAQ including Microsoft, Dell, and Cisco. Ticker symbols are made up of four letters such as MSFT for Microsoft.

The NASDAQ is the largest electronic stock market in the United States with over 3200 companies listed. These companies represent leaders across all industries including technology, financial services, retail, media, transportation, communications, and biotechnology. NASDAQ began trading in 1971 and became the first electronic stock market in the world.

Several indexes such as the NASDAQ Composite index offer a snapshot of the performance of the listed stocks. The NASDAQ Composite tracks the value of all the listed stocks and securities offering a look at the performance of the technology and growth companies as a whole.

The NASDAQ 100 is a market value-weighted index measuring the top 100 companies listed in the NASDAQ stock market. Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are measured on the NASDAQ Biotechnology index.