NASDAQ Stock Market

The NASDAQ Stock Market, known as NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. The full form is National Association of Securities and Dealers Automated Quotation.It is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the United States. With approximately 3,700 companies and corporations, it has more trading volume per hour than any other stock exchange in the world.

The group, now known as Nasdaq-OMX, controls and operates the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York City — the second largest exchange in the United States. It also operates eight stock exchanges in Europe and holds one-third of the Dubai Stock Exchange. It has a double-listing agreement with OMX, and will compete with NYSE Euronext group in attracting new listings.

NASDAQ quotes are available at three levels:
* Level 1 shows the highest bid and lowest offer — the inside quote.
* Level 2 shows all public quotes of market makers together with information of market makers wishing to sell or buy stock and recently executed orders.[8]
* Level 3 is used by the market makers and allows them to enter their quotes and execute orders.

Trading schedule
NASDAQ has a pre-market session from 07:00am to 09:30am, a normal trading session from 09:30am to 04:00pm and a post-market session from 04:00pm to 08:00pm (all times in EST).[9]

Indices
* NASDAQ-100
* NASDAQ Biotechnology Index
* NASDAQ Composite

Nasdaq Composite
The Nasdaq Composite is a stock market index of all of the common stocks and similar securities (e.g. ADRs, tracking stocks, limited partnership interests) listed on the NASDAQ stock market, meaning that it has over 3,000 components. It is highly followed in the U.S. as an indicator of the performance of stocks of technology companies and growth companies. Since both U.S. and non-U.S. companies are listed on the NASDAQ stock market, the index is not exclusively a U.S. index.

NASDAQ-100 Index
The NASDAQ-100 Index includes 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial securities listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market based on market capitalization. The Index reflects companies across major industry groups including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain securities of financial companies including investment companies.

NASDAQ Biotechnology Index
The NASDAQ Biotechnology Index includes securities of Nasdaq-listed companies classified according to the Industry Classification Benchmark as either Biotechnology or Pharmaceuticals which also meet other eligibility criteria. The NASDAQ Biotechnology Index is calculated under a modified capitalization-weighted methodology.