The Closing Cross is a centralized order facility that will provide a robust, orderly market close for NASDAQ securities. The facility will bring together the buy and sell interest in specific NASDAQ stocks and execute all shares for each stock at a single price, one that reflects the true supply and demand for the NASDAQ securities at the market close. Creating closing prices that are the result of bringing together all significant orders ensures that NASDAQ's official closing prices are tradable, accessible, and indicative of the deep liquidity in the market.
"The forums are designed to educate market participants about the Closing Cross in order to provide them with the opportunity to determine closing prices that are truly reflective of supply and demand," said Adena Friedman, Executive Vice President of NASDAQ Corporate Strategy and Data Products.
"As the world's largest electronic market that trades more shares than all other U.S. markets, NASDAQ can provide accurate and reliable closing values in a quick and efficient manner. The Closing Cross will establish a higher industry standard and reinforce NASDAQ's position as the superior market at every moment of every trading day."
The result of providing more robust closing prices for NASDAQ stocks through the NASDAQ Closing Cross will be the ability to provide the industry with even greater certainty in pricing major transactions and daily mutual fund Net Asset Values. The NASDAQ Closing Cross is scheduled for implementation on March 29, 2004, pending approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Forums are currently scheduled for several cities, including New York, Boston, New Jersey, and Saint Louis. More cities may be added. Please refer to the forum schedule under the Open/Close Enhancements page on the NASDAQ Trader SM Web site for details about the forums and for more information regarding the NASDAQ Closing Cross.
Currently, the NASDAQ Official Closing Price (NOCP) determines closing prices. The NOCP was launched in April 2003 and has been widely adopted by the industry as the benchmark price for the market close.
NASDAQ® is the world's largest electronic stock market. With approximately 3,300 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It is home to category-defining companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology industries. NASDAQ is the primary market for trading NASDAQ listed stocks. Approximately 54% of NASDAQ-listed shares traded are reported to NASDAQ systems. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at www.NASDAQ.com or the NASDAQ NewsroomSM at www.NASDAQnews.com.
