NASDAQ, the American stock exchange

NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is currently the second largest trading market in the world as market capitalization. At the beginning of 2011 the market capitalization of NASDAQ reached a staggering 4.7 trillion dollars. The number of companies listed is 2,872 and the total trading volume is 982 billion dollars, the largest electronic stock exchange trading volume in the world.

The history of the American stock exchange market starts with National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) that founded NASDAQ in 1971. This was the first electronic market ever but it was more like a computer message board. As NASDAQ started to actually trade and introduced automated trading systems it evolved in a real stock market.

NASDAQ was the first American stock market to provide online trading so for many this is the evidence of an evolution pointing to the future. Thanks to its trading particularities NASDAQ contributed to lower the spread which encouraged a constant increase in volume trading.

The main index of the American stock exchange is Nasdaq Composite which includes more than 3,000 companies. In July 1995 the index marked its first peak over 1,000 and by 2000 it reached an all-time high of 5,048. In the next two years Nasdaq Composite lost 80% of its value, in 2002 being around 1,200.

In mid 2000s the index started to recover and in 2007 reached the 2,800 level. In September 2008 the index lost nearly 200 points but in October 2008 it almost regained its previous loss. In 2009 Nasdaq goes down to 1,300 but rebounds back in 2010 reaching 2,550. Currently the Nasdaq Composite is around 2800.

The economic and financial crisis that swept the world in the last few years slowly passed but its effects have not yet faded away. However, NASDAQ seems to show a positive trend which could mean that a period of recovery and growth is starting to show in global economy.