ECONOMICS REPORT - Nasdaq: An Electronic Marketplace

ECONOMICS REPORT - Nasdaq: An Electronic Marketplace
By Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Friday, September 16, 2005

I'm Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Economics Report.

A listener in China asks about the history of the world's largest electronic stock market, Nasdaq.

Many companies want to sell stock so they can get money to expand their business. Stock is shares of ownership.

Shares can be bought and sold on the trading floor of a stock exchange. Or they can be traded through an over-the-counter market. Such a market links dealers¹ directly by a computer or telephone system.

By nineteen sixty-one, Congress became concerned that the over-the-counter market was disorganized. So the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed that dealers use an electronic system to organize their sales.

The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated² Quotations³ system began in nineteen seventy-one. Today it is known as the Nasdaq Stock Market or just Nasdaq.

Traditionally, it has offered a home to smaller companies. It accepts stocks that are lower in market value and traded less often than shares on the New York Stock Exchange. But Nasdaq also trades big, active stocks. Among them is Microsoft, maker⁴ of the operating system on most personal computers.

Nasdaq provides price information for over-the-counter stocks as well as many companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The prices are published in newspapers.

On Nasdaq, each stock has a number of dealers called "market makers⁵." They buy and sell shares for themselves and investors⁶. Market makers use their own money as needed.

Nasdaq lists about three thousand three hundred companies. It points out that it lists more companies and trades more shares per day, on average, than any other market in the country.

But the world's largest stock market is the New York Stock Exchange. Major activity still takes place on a trading floor. Each stock is handled by one "specialist" who acts as a market maker and has other duties. Specialists are expected to keep a "fair and orderly market."

Many people want a modern system of electronic trading. The exchange took a big step in April. It announced plans to combine with an electronic market, Archipelago. Two days later, competition grew when Nasdaq announced an agreement to buy Instinet, another electronic trading system.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter.  I'm Barbara Klein.

1 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

2 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

3 quotations   

n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价

参考例句：

• The insurance company requires three quotations for repairs to the car. 保险公司要修理这辆汽车的三家修理厂的报价单。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These quotations cannot readily be traced to their sources. 这些引语很难查出出自何处。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

5 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会