On August 15, electric car company VinFast rang the launch bell on Nasdaq Global Select Market on Nasdaq stock exchange. The US currently has nearly 20 exchanges, distributed in cities such as Boston, Chicago, Miami or Philadelphia. However, the two largest and most talked about exchanges are the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq.

Compared to the NYSE, Nasdaq is relatively young. While the NYSE was founded in 1792, Nasdaq has only been in business since 1971. However, Nasdaq is currently the largest electronic exchange and the second largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization, after the NYSE.

Nasdaq is known for its technology, and NYSE is known for its live trading floor. Unlike the NYSE, which still has a physical location for traders (traders) in New York City, Nasdaq is completely machine-based. This is the world's first electronic exchange.

Companies that trade on the NYSE are usually large, established companies that focus on profits and pay regular dividends. In contrast, businesses on the Nasdaq are typically growth-focused.

Nasdaq is also the most active stock exchange in the US, by trading volume. Only in the first half of 2023, this exchange recorded more than 60 IPO deals. The average trading volume of companies on the Nasdaq Composite Index on August 15 was 4 billion shares.

Companies listed on Nasdaq are divided into three market levels. The highest is Nasdaq Global Select Market. Tech giants like Meta Platforms, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Netflix are all in this group. Nasdaq Global Select Market currently has nearly 1,480 businesses. The latest is VinFast.

Information on Nasdaq's website states that this level has the highest IPO standards compared to other exchanges in the world. This is a milestone of achievements and stature of enterprises.

The other two levels are Nasdaq Global Market and Nasdaq Capital Market. At all three levels, businesses that want to list need to meet financial, liquidity and corporate governance requirements.

However, the financial and liquidity requirements of Nasdaq Global Select Market are the highest. For example, the total pre-tax profit of the last three fiscal years is at least $2.2 million. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Global Market requires a minimum profit before tax for the most recent fiscal year of $1 million and Nasdaq Capital Market only needs a net profit of $750,000.

Even if a business meets all of the requirements, Nasdaq may reject an application or make additional requests as it deems necessary, to protect the interests of investors and the public.

Nasdaq Global Market is for companies with an international presence and global leadership, often in the mid-cap.

Nasdaq Capital Markets focuses on businesses that have only the most basic goal of raising capital. This group mainly consists of companies in the early stages with relatively low capitalization ($300 million - $2 billion).

Nasdaq was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). Initially, they only provided stock price display services. But then, Nasdaq gradually evolved into an exchange. In 1980, Apple made an IPO on this floor, becoming one of the iconic IPOs of the United States.

The Nasdaq Stock Exchange is currently owned by Nasdaq. This business also operates the Nasdaq Nordic exchange (specializing in serving the Nordic market) and a number of other stock and options exchanges in the US.

The Nasdaq has two of the most watched indices, the Nasdaq Composite and the Nasdaq 100. The Nasdaq Composite includes almost all of the 3,000 corporate stocks listed on this exchange. However, the fact that Nasdaq is favored by technology companies also makes the performance of the Nasdaq Composite index highly dependent on this sector.

This makes the Nasdaq Composite more volatile than other major indexes like the S&P 500 or the DJIA. However, this index is therefore considered a barometer for the technology sector.

If you just want to track a small segment of the technology sector, experts say investors should look to the Nasdaq 100 index, which includes the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq. Of which, about 60% are technology representatives.

Nasdaq is famous for its state-of-the-art machinery. This exchange also has a lower listing fee than the NYSE and currently has many trillion-dollar technology giants.

The choice of listing on any exchange depends on the needs of the business. For example, some companies choose the NYSE because they want to build an image. Meanwhile, information technology, biotechnology, or small-cap businesses tend to choose Nasdaq to save costs and spend capital for growth.

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