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average person on the street may not know how to spell Nasdaq
or explain how the electronic stock exchange functions — but
odds are they will be able to name one of the hot technology stocks
that are traded on its exchange such as Intel, Cisco, Oracle or
the granddaddy of them all Microsoft.
Touted
as "the Stock Market for the Next Hundred Years" in television advertisements,
the Nasdaq Stock Exchange perhaps made the single most important
decision in its history on April 7, 1997, when it opened its own
Market Site.
Hoping to simulate the environment and energy of the historic New
York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq constructed a network of television
monitors that would display real time market quotes for the leading
stock during each trading session.
Though Nasdaq succeeded in creating a new site that would serve
as the center for the stock exchange, the site still did not generate
the same level of energy as the trading floor of the NYSE.
Since the Nasdaq is a completely automated exchange, there are no
traders running through a maze of bodies, no shouting or flashing
hand signals — the setting that most investors associate with
an exchange.
In
fact the original site on Whitehall Street off Wall Street was just
the opposite — a calm location near the Staten Island ferry
dock. It was not the type of environment that investors expect to
see at a stock market boasting some of the largest publicly traded
companies in the U.S.
It was not until CNN decided to plant a correspondent at the exchange
and broadcast live market updates a few years ago that Nasdaq's
vision was finally realized.
"The Nasdaq Market Site was a brilliant PR tool that all of us bought
into," says Sasha Salama, a CNN anchor and correspondent who has
reported from the site for the past year and a half.
"The
Nasdaq is the [stock] market for the new economy," says Salama.
"And none of the stations can afford not to have a correspondent
reporting live from the site — viewers expect us to be there."
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