The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System, or popularly known as NASDAQ, is American stock exchange located in New York City. It is owned and operated by the NASDAQ OMX Group headed by Robert Greifeld and H. Furlong Baldwin, CEO and Chairman respectively. It has a total of roughly 3,200 listings, 335 of which are non-US companies, making it the biggest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the US and has the largest daily trading volume in the world. NASDAQ was established by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) in 1971.
To be listed on NASDAQ, a company must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has at least 3 market makers, and meet minimum requirements for assets, capital, public shares and shareholders. With its Electronic Communication Network (ECN) system, NASDAQ permits trading of multiple market participants thus escalating competition. Another NASDAQ feature is the so-called Small Order Execution System (SOES) which was introduced in 1987. It guarantees that small market orders are automatically processed even under ?turbulent? market situations.
NASDAQ indexes include the NASDAQ Composite, NASDAQ-100, and NASDAQ Biotechnology Index. The NASDAQ quotes are offered in 3 levels: Level 1 ? displays the lowest offers and highest bid; Level 2 ? displays every public quote plus details of market makers bidding to buy or sell stocks; and Level 3 ? utilized by the market makers, grants them to enter quotes and perform orders. The trading sessions (Eastern Time) for NASDAQ Stock Market are: pre-market (7:00 AM to 9:30 AM); market hours (9:30 AM to 4:00 PM); and after-market (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM).
