nasdaq
NASDAQ is the American stock exchange famous for tech giants like Apple and Microsoft, run entirely on computers with no trading floor shouting.
In plain English
Chidinma works in IT in Lagos and every payday she puts aside a small amount to buy fractional shares in Apple and Tesla through an app on her phone.
When her colleagues ask where these companies are listed, she tells them one word, NASDAQ, and watches their eyes light up because everyone has heard the name even if nobody quite knows what it means.
NASDAQ started in 1971 as the world's first electronic stock exchange, built at a time when trading floors were full of men shouting and waving paper. It did away with all that noise and let trades happen through computer screens instead.
Today it is home to some of the biggest technology companies on earth, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google's parent Alphabet, and Tesla among them, which is why people sometimes call it the tech exchange, though plenty of non tech companies list there too.
For a Nigerian trader or a diaspora worker in Manchester sending money home while also building an investment portfolio, NASDAQ is usually the first serious taste of foreign stock ownership, because the companies are familiar even if the market itself is new.
It is separate from the New York Stock Exchange, its older cousin, but the two often get mentioned together in the news because they represent the size and mood of the American stock market as a whole.
Chidinma invests ₦50,000 every month through her brokerage account into an exchange traded fund that tracks NASDAQ listed companies, so a chunk of her savings calmly grows alongside Apple and Amazon's fortunes.
Questions people ask
Is NASDAQ the same as the American stock market?
No, it is one of several exchanges in America. The New York Stock Exchange is another major one. Together with a few smaller exchanges, they make up the wider American stock market.
Can a Nigerian actually buy NASDAQ listed shares?
Yes, through international brokerage accounts or apps that offer foreign stock access. Some Nigerian fintech platforms now let you buy shares in companies like Apple or Tesla directly in dollars.
Why do people call NASDAQ a tech exchange?
Because many of the world's largest technology companies chose to list there early on, and that reputation stuck, even though it now lists companies from many other industries too.
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