Nasdaq began operations in 1971 as the world’s first electronic stock market.
Nasdaq was created by the National Association of Securities Dealers and started trading on February 8, 1971. Rather than using a traditional physical trading floor, it provided an electronic quotation system that displayed prices for securities traded through a network of market makers.
The name originally referred to the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations. Nasdaq initially functioned mainly as a quotation system, but it developed into a major exchange operator with listed companies from technology and many other sectors.
A common mix-up is treating Nasdaq as only a technology index. The Nasdaq Composite is an index, while Nasdaq is the exchange and financial-market company associated with the electronic marketplace.