Nasdaq´s technology floor: its president takes stock

Over the years, electronics technology has revolutionized virtually every securities market, most notably The Nasdaq^TM (National Association of Securities Dealers´ Automated Quotations) Stock Market Inc. Nasdaq was the world´s first market to handle trading not on an exchange floor but through a computer network linking display screens. However, since its advent in 1971, changes in telecommunications and computer technologies have been ongoing, profound and complex. As a screen-based market, Nasdaq has striven to stay on top of those developments. It is in the process of completing a US $180 million systems migration program-the largest single telecommunications and computer project undertaken by a US stock market. The effort has involved replacing the entire Nasdaq system with a standards-based client-server network, while moving from analog to digital network technology and upgrading the core systems to process 500 transactions a second-a rate that enables the market to handle at least a billion shares a day. With these systems, Nasdaq has the flexibility to constantly improve operational efficiency and regulatory oversight