In 1985, Nasdaq launched the Nasdaq-100 Index^® (NDX^®) to track the 100 largest, non-financial companies listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market. In addition to being a barometer for the investment community on how major sectors of the market are performing, the Index also plays an important role as the basis for investible products. Today, the NDX is one of the world’s most widely followed stock indexes, with more than $50 billion in exchange-traded products tied to the Index, including the well-known PowerShares QQQ Trust® ETF (QQQ) or, simply, “the Q’s.”
At the time of launch, Nasdaq was still in its infancy (just 14 years old) and indexing was completely new territory. Since launch, the market cap of Nasdaq-100 companies has grown from $58 billion to more than $4.7 trillion today. Now, hundreds of products, including ETFs, Mutual Funds, Futures, Options and other derivatives, are tied to the index in 29 countries. While always solidly tilted to the technology sector, the NDX has evolved to include some of the top names in biotech, retail, media and industrials and is cited as a benchmark for large-cap growth performance.

In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the Nasdaq-100 Index, Nasdaq Global Indexes will be publishing a white paper, providing a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the index. The research piece details the lifespan of NDX including those companies that have been in since inception; the nuances of the index vs. its competitors; reasoning behind rebalances and more. We’ll send out an update when the paper is available for download.

In addition, join us for the Web Seminar: The Nasdaq-100 Turns 30: Tracking Innovation in Large Cap Growth on Tuesday, February 10th at 10 am EST.

Special Note: Bloomberg will be recording their ‘Taking Stock’ radio show live from the Nasdaq MarketSite on February 9th to cover this milestone. The line-up of guest speakers includes Q’s pioneers John Jacobs, Ben Fulton and Eric Noll; along with present-day managers Rob Hughes, Vice President Nasdaq Global Indexes, and Dan Draper, Managing Director, Invesco PowerShares. They will also be joined by Debbie Fuhr, respected founder of ETFGI, an independent research and consultancy firm.

Listen live on Monday, February 9th from 2pm -5pm Eastern Time.