On Friday, March 31, NASDAQ® will conduct its first live market open ceremony from the tournament to help kick-off Finals Weekend. This will mark the first time that a NASDAQ market open event has been televised remotely in the state of Florida. NASDAQ Global Funds CEO John Jacobs will lead the festivities at stadium court and will be joined by tournament chair Butch Buchholz, tournament director Adam Barrett, top players, ball boys and tournament volunteers.
The QQQ Pavilion, NASDAQ's interactive booth area, will once again be the hub of activity on-site during the tournament, featuring autograph sessions with players, special events, and photo opportunities. Scheduled activities will include Q&A sessions with fans, live radio remote broadcasts and an animal showcase from the Miami Zoo.
“The NASDAQ-100 Open is a venue that enables us to reach a very diverse group of active investors,” said NASDAQ Global Funds CEO John Jacobs. “As we celebrate our fifth year as title sponsor, we look forward to opening the market in Florida for the first time and to continue to showcase our industry leading companies that comprise the NASDAQ-100 Index, as well as QQQ - the most actively traded listed equity security in the U.S.” 1
Continuing its tradition of community involvement, NASDAQ will host a group of young adults from Junior Achievement on March 23 for a financial literacy workshop. Junior Achievement is a not-for-profit economic education organization that prepares children for the future economic and workforce issues they will face. Jacobs will provide background on how the stock market works and help the students broaden their knowledge base and gain real life experience in the areas of saving, responsible investing and financial management.
NASDAQ, a long-time supporter of Junior Achievement , will also provide the students with a unique opportunity to spend part of their day taking part in Junior Achievement's “Job Shadow Program.” It is an academically motivating activity designed to provide a unique opportunity to experience the work up-close. Participating students “shadow” workplace mentors as they go through a normal day on the job, allowing students to see firsthand how the skills learned in school relate to the workplace. At the tournament, students will get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to manage a major sporting event in areas like media relations, sponsorship, operations and marketing.
The NASDAQ-100 Open is named for its sponsor, the NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock®, an exchange traded fund (ETF) designed to generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the NASDAQ-100 Index®, one of the most closely followed indexers in the U.S. ETFs are financial products that trade like shares of stock. They can be bought and sold throughout the trading day and through any broker. QQQ is one investment that offers ownership in NASDAQ's largest 100 non-financial companies. By purchasing a single share of QQQ, you instantly gain access to 100 of NASDAQ's large-cap growth companies while adding a broad-market index to your portfolio.
QQQ is also available to Japanese and Mexican investors in their countries' currencies. Additionally, NASDAQ-100 companies Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) will once again have a presence at the Tournament as sponsors. Other NASDAQ companies that are sponsoring the tournament are Jet Blue (NASDAQ: JBLU) and Parlux Fragrances (NASDAQ: PARL).
Expanded activities also include:
- NASDAQ will bring the tournament and Miami to New York, with the live broadcast of the NASDAQ-100 Open men's and women's finals on the seven-story NASDAQ MarketSite screen in Times Square on April 1 and 2 .
- Returning for the third year, the World Series of Exchange Traded Funds will take place in Key Biscayne on March 30 and 31, coinciding with the NASDAQ-100 Open.
- The longest running and best-attended conference of its kind, The World Series of Exchange Traded Funds specifically addresses exchange traded fund-related issues relevant to financial planners, advisors and other wealth management professionals.
- The NASDAQ-100 Open will host 2,000 school children on March 28 for Kids Day, which will feature interactive sessions with professional players, live entertainment and games.
- Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) will also bring along stars from its popular series, Maya & Miguel , an animated sitcom for kids 6-11 years old.
- NASDAQ has partnered with NASDAQ-100 company XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) to provide satellite radios equipped with XM service as gifts for every player participating in the tournament.
As the NASDAQ-100 Trust – holder of the NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock – enters its fifth year as title sponsor of the tournament, investors can now buy QQQ directly through the trust. On March 6, Nasdaq Global Funds and MyStockFund Securities, Inc. announced they jointly developed QQQDirectSM, a service that allows dollar cost average investors to buy QQQ directly. For the first time, QQQDirect enables investors who purchase the same dollar amount of shares at regular intervals to have direct access to an exchange traded fund. QQQDirect is an affordable online investing service that provides one plan purchase of QQQ per month free of any charge. It is a fractional share, dollar-based service that allows as little as $10.00 per month to be invested with QQQDirect's AutoVest Schedule. Information about QQQDirect will be available on-site throughout the Tournament and displayed on the NASDAQ ticker at the QQQ Pavilion.
About the NASDAQ-100 Open
The 2006 NASDAQ-100 Open will be played March 22-April 2 at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Miami. The 12-day combined event, founded by Butch Buchholz in 1985, is owned by IMG and operated by IMG's Miami office. The NASDAQ-100 Open is one of nine ATP Masters Series events on the ATP calendar, a top-tier event on the Sony Ericsson WTA TOUR calendar, and features the top men's and women's tennis players in the world. In 2005, Roger Federer and Kim Clijsters won their first NASDAQ-100 championship defeating Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova respectively. For ticket information, call (305) 442-3367 or visit the website at http://www.nasdaq-100open.com/.
About The NASDAQ Stock Market
NASDAQ (NASDAQ: NDAQ) is the largest U.S. electronic stock market. With more than 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It is home to companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology. NASDAQ is the primary market for trading NASDAQ-listed stocks. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at http://www.nasdaq.com or the NASDAQ Newsroom at http://www.nasdaq.com/newsroom/.
Investors should consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. For this and more complete information about QQQ, a unit investment trust, obtain a prospectus from your broker, or call 888.627.3837. Read it carefully before you invest .
ALPS Distributors, Inc. is a distributor for -QQQ.
1 Source: Bloomberg and FactSet Research System Inc. Data as of December 31, 2005.
