The Nasdaq refers to an index and a trading exchange (where people go to buy stocks). The most famous exchange is the New York Stock Exchange. But almost as famous is the Nasdaq Exchange, where the stocks people trade tend to be technology companies, like Apple and Google. Smaller companies are traded on the Nasdaq too, like Angie’s List (the website that offers peer-to-peer reviews of home-repair contractors) and 1-800-Flowers. The Nasdaq trades international companies as well as domestic companies. The Nasdaq also trades some banking companies, airline companies like Spirit Airlines, and even a few non-technology businesses like Starbucks and shoe company Steve Madden. In other words, there’s no law that says only high-tech companies are traded on the Nasdaq Exchange. The Nasdaq just generally holds an abundance of technology companies. A stock index of the 100 largest companies traded on the Nasdaq is called the NASDAQ 100. Its trading symbol is “QQQ.”