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The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations system (NASDAQ) is a securities market that was started in the US on February 8, 1971. Owned and managed by a company appropriately named The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc., it is the largest digital, on-screen online trading stock market located in the US.

In 1971, NASDAQ became the world's first exclusively electronic trading market for equities, and it now serves millions of people all over the world. NASDAQ has become the United States' most rapidly growing stock market, and the market with the most listings from outside the US. It now leads all American markets in trading volume and in companies listed. The most frequently mentioned index, the NASDAQ Composite, has been published each day for 36 years. The large-cap NASDAQ 100 Index was introduced in 1985, as was the Financial Index covering stocks in that sector.

There are presently about 5100 companies whose stocks trade on NASDAQ. These range from household names such as Intel and Microsoft to many small companies with aggressive growth patterns. The NASDAQ system now handles about 29% of all shares trading on all American equities markets. This proportion ranges from 14-15% of "Tape A" securities also listed on the New York Stock Exchange up to 98% of some companies whose stocks trade on Tape C.

The Stock Market named NASDAQ uses a sliding fee method based on the quantity of trading the market parts enact on the NASDAQ systems. The higher the volume done on this system, the lower the removal fee for liquidity and the more favourable the additional liquidity rebates.

In an online trading market system, there is huge competition between 'Market Makers' for the best buying and selling prices. Companies also consider these market makers as lucrative market since they are always ready to immediately invest capital to their registered stocks. Market makers also help immediate and continuous trading in a company's stock. Buyers and sellers want to trade as frequent as possible and investors want to hold securities as much as possible, since they realize those stocks are readily saleable.

The quotes are available at three levels. Level I shows the highest bid and lowest offer - the inside quote. Level II shows all public quotes of market makers together with information of market makers wishing to sell or buy stock and recently executed orders. Level III is used by the market makers and allows them to enter their quotes and execute orders. By continuing to shape the new world of investing, NASDAQ is challenging the very definition of what a stock market is and what it can be.