Two previous pilot implementations of 212 Nasdaq stocks and two OTC Bulletin Board® securities were carried out according to plan on March 12 and March 26, 2001.
"Today we consign fractions to history and enter a new era of quoting the prices of Nasdaq stocks in dollars and cents," said Gregor S. Bailar, Executive Vice President of Operations and Technology and Chief Information Officer. "Nasdaq has supported decimalization ever since Congressman Michael G. Oxley of Ohio called the first public hearing on this issue. We thank him for his leadership. We also appreciate the work of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who shepherded the effort. The successful process of implementation is a testament to the hard work and dedication over many months of our colleagues in the securities industry, as well as the Securities Industry Association, and the scores of Nasdaq employees who made sure everything worked on time as promised."
To achieve today’s results, virtually every computer system within Nasdaq was changed. This included an upgrade of the Enterprise Wide Network, a change to Nasdaq Workstations to allow for the display of decimal information, replacement of front-end processors with a higher- capacity computer architecture that allows for quoting and matching of decimals trades, and upgrades to back-office batch processing systems that calculate indices, dividends, etc.
A similar effort took place among Nasdaq broker-dealers that required them to assess and redesign their systems and business models.
"Nasdaq had to accomplish the entire conversion in only four weeks, so we worked extensively with the industry beforehand, testing at every level, ensuring that we all had the required capacity and capability to do the job. This was a special challenge since Nasdaq is totally electronic with traders distributed throughout the United States and not on one central trading floor. We compliment the industry on its excellent work in achieving this milestone," said Bailar.
The conversion by Nasdaq to decimals was governed by the Decimals Implementation Plan For the Equities and Options Markets that was submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 24, 2000.
The Nasdaq Stock Market lists nearly 4,600 companies, has a larger dollar volume, and trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. For more information about Nasdaq, visit the Nasdaq Web site at www.nasdaq.com or the Nasdaq NewsroomSM at www.nasdaqnews.com.
