What is the Nasdaq?
The computer stock market: lots of tech companies are listed there, and its index follows all of them.
🧺 What is an index?
An index is like a basket with tiny pieces of lots of companies. Instead of looking at them one by one, the index tells you with a single number whether they did well or badly all together. That's why it's measured in points, not in money.
📖 Its story
Long ago, people bought and sold stocks by shouting on a floor full of people. On February 8, 1971, the Nasdaq opened: the first stock market in the world that was fully electronic. Everything went through computers.
⚙️ How it works
Nasdaq is two things: a stock market where companies are listed, and an index (the Nasdaq Composite) that measures how all the companies on that market are doing together. Since there are lots of tech companies there, when tech does well, the Nasdaq usually goes up.
🤯 Fun fact
Its name comes from initials meaning "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It was all about computers from day one!
🎓 For older kids
The Nasdaq Composite started at 100 points in 1971. In 2000 it went past 5,000 and then fell about 78% when the dot-com bubble burst. Years later it recovered and climbed much higher.
🧠 Did you get it?
What was special about the Nasdaq when it opened in 1971?
🗂️ Quick facts
- Born: February 8, 1971
- Created by: The National Association of Securities Dealers (US)
- Where: New York, United States
- Has: Thousands of companies
🎮 Play with it
Build your basket on the Monitor and compare it with the index: did you beat the market?
Build my basketJust for learning: not an investment recommendation.