Nasdaq Yearly Highs and Lows

Year 52 Wk High Date 52 Wk Low Date

2016 5,058.06 1st-Jan 4,209.764 12th-Feb
2015 5,229.00 22nd-Jul 4,292.144 25th-Aug
2014 4,814.95 27th-Dec 3,946.034 16th-Apr
2013 4,175.36 28th-Dec 2,953.524 1st-Jan
2012 3,196.93 22nd-Sep 2,627.234 5th-Jan
2011 2,887.75 2nd-May 2,298.894 5th-Oct
2010 2,675.26 22nd-Dec 2,061.144 1st-Jul
2009 2,295.80 28th-Dec 1,265.524 9th-Mar
2008 2,661.50 2nd-Jan 1,295.484 21st-Nov
2007 2,861.51 13th-May 2,331.574 14th-Mar

What do you observe from the table?
– Jan high means lots of fall down the year, but this will be known in retrospect only.
– Jan-Feb combination is not there for High-Lows, so one of these two will break in the coming months. So either a new 52 week high, or a new 52 week low is coming.

The NASDAQ commenced trading on February 8, 1971 with more than 2500 securities listed on it. It was a great milestone in the finance sector as it was the world’s first electronic stock market. The NASDAQ divested themselves in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. NASDAQ OMX Group has the possession of the stock exchange. The NASDAQ OMX group operates the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York City. It is the second largest exchange in the United States. It also controls eight stock exchanges in Europe and holds one-third of the Dubai Stock Exchange. Its main index is the NASDAQ Composite. However, its exchange-traded fund tracks the large-cap NASDAQ 100 index. It was introduced in 1985 alongside the NASDAQ 100 Financial Index. Ironically, the stock of NASDAQ OMX Group was listed on its own stock exchange in 2002. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in America was then acquired by the NASDAQ on November 7, 2007. Today the NASDAQ Composite includes over 3,000 companies, more than most other stock market indexes. The NASDAQ Composite is one of the most widely followed and quoted major market indexes.

The NASDAQ Composite is a stock market index of all of the regular stocks listed on the NASDAQ stock market. The index is highly followed as a sign of the performance of companies from technology and growth sector. However, the index is not an exclusively US index since both US and non-US companies are listed on the NASDAQ. The NASDAQ Composite Index uses a market capitalization weighted methodology for the calculation. A security must be exclusively on the NASDAQ Stock Market in order to be eligible for inclusion in the NASDAQ Composite Index. The security should have a security type of either American Depositary Receipts (ADRs); Common Stock; Limited Partnership Interests; Ordinary Shares; Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs); Shares of Beneficial Interest (SBIs) & Tracking Stocks. However, if at any time a security fails to meet the above criteria at any point of time then the security will not be eligible for inclusion in the Composite Index and is removed from the index.

The index closed above the 1,000 mark for the first time on July 17, 1995. The index touched at an all-time high of 5,132.52, and closed at 5,048.62 on March 10, 2000. In October 1974, the index recorded an all-time low of 54 points, down close to 46% from the time of its introduction. After the advent of the dot com bubble the index lost half of its value within a year. After bottoming out in October 2002, the index gradually recovered since then & it took almost 5 years to cross the 2800 mark on the index in October 2007. However, with increased possibility of US going into a recession due to sub-prime crisis & higher crude prices The NASDAQ began its downward journey in early 2008. The NASDAQ lost 20% from its recent highs in the month of February. The biggest drop for the index was witnessed on September 29, 2008 as it lost nearly 200 points to close below the 2000 level. It lost 9.14% to mark as the biggest fall since dot com bubble. The NASDAQ took a U-turn on October 13 & gained nearly 11% or 200 points. However the bear rally continued & index touched a fresh 5 1/2-year low closing at 1,316.12 near its intraday low on November 20, 2008. The index had lost 55% from its 52 week high.

Nasdaq 100 Composition
Activision Blizzard, Inc
Adobe Systems Inc.
Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Altera Corporation
Amazon.com, Inc.
Amgen Inc.
Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Apollo Group, Inc.
Apple Inc.
Applied Materials, Inc.
Autodesk, Inc.
Baidu.com, Inc.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
Biogen Idec Inc
Broadcom Corporation
CH Robinson Worldwide, Inc.
CA Inc.
Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Celgene Corporation
Cephalon, Inc.
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.
Cintas Corporation
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Citrix Systems, Inc.