Let’s Rewrite Tomorrow

           Nasdaq was created in 1971 to be the stock market of the future for innovators and the leaders of the global economy. Within our first year as a market, companies that were redefining our economy at that time took a chance, went public, and listed on Nasdaq, including Comcast, Applied Materials and Intel. 

           Over five decades, we have been incredibly fortunate to be the listing exchange to the world’s greatest innovators – the companies that will define tomorrow’s world. And now, as we embrace our own innovative spirit to redefine the future of the capital markets, we’ll also have the opportunity to redefine our own future.

           As I assumed the helm as Chief Executive Officer in January this year, one of my first actions was to call for a fresh examination of Nasdaq’s purpose and character as we peered out into the next decade of our industry and the key trends that will influence the broader economy. Our technology 46 years ago invented the electronic market. Our technology today powers over 100 markets around the world and has created the global standard for market functionality, speed, and performance. What will our technology, our market expertise, and our integrity bring to the capital markets and the broader marketplace economy tomorrow? 

           Today, young, successful companies look to Nasdaq for both private and public capital solutions. Through the Nasdaq Private Market, we provide private companies with an efficient way to transfer equity ownership through our liquidity and workflow solutions. Private companies can reward their employees for their loyalty by giving them a means to convert some of their equity ownership into money to fuel their personal future. So, what will that market look like in the future? We envision that our technology will allow owners of ALL private assets – private companies, private equity interests, and other instruments – to seek buyers and transfer ownership seamlessly through the blockchain with digital currency settlement. 

           We see our technology empowering others to establish markets that don’t exist today. More and more industries are enabling clients and consumers to have a say in the pricing of products and services. What is the value of your unused loyalty points at hotels or on airlines? What is the value of instant, short-term insurance? What is the value of an advertising future? Today and tomorrow, the customers will be able to help set the prices with instant auctions and new liquidity solutions. Nasdaq will be there to bring the best of the capital markets technology and expertise to all marketplaces. 

           And in the public markets, we will continue to set the pace for “What’s next”. Ideas include creating endless capacity on a global scale with the cloud, lowering risk in the financial system with distributed ledger technology – aka blockchain – to speed settlement and track ownership, and using vast amounts of data that the markets create combined with machine intelligence to provide investors with new insights to make intelligent investing decisions. 

           We are so proud to be the technology partner to so many markets around the globe including many emerging economies, such as Chile, Colombia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Turkey – as well as dynamic established economies, including Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, and others. In highly populous Indonesia, for example, we are helping the IDX, the national exchange, both strengthen its infrastructure and triple the number of the nation’s investors, an essential step in rewriting tomorrow for a growing economy. We have a huge responsibility to prepare all of these markets for their own futures while we also lead the way in the US and across the Nordics for our own markets. And we have a tremendous opportunity to bring the best of the capital markets capabilities to the broader marketplace economy. The Nasdaq Financial Framework is our latest invention, our investment in the future, our way to rewrite our tomorrow.

           Coupled with the Nasdaq Financial Framework, we are dedicated to delivering higher intelligence to traders, institutional investors, and corporate clients globally with the power of machine intelligence. With our Nasdaq IR Insight platform, we give public companies deeper insights into their stock ownership and shareholder behavior. With the power of Analytics Hub, we offer unique trading signals and investment ideas to traditional and alternative asset managers to inform investment decisions. Through the announcement of our eVestment acquisition, we can empower asset managers to compete for new fund flows and asset owners to allocate their investment dollars to the best of breed investors when the deal closes. We are here as the industry’s partner to empower better decisions through market expertise and tomorrow’s technology.     

           To Nasdaq, tomorrow isn’t an expression of time but a story to rewrite about a connected ecosystem that constitutes a market of possibilities. We possess what is needed to unleash those possibilities: the leading-edge technology, the forward thinking, and the power of data and analytics. We have the ingenuity to power economies, the insights to empower people, and the integrity that is the cornerstone of all markets. With those resources, we are going to rewrite ways to expand wealth, create jobs, and enrich people’s lives. We aim to set the pace for all that—for re-thinking capital markets and economies anywhere and everywhere. We’re changing the rhythm for pursuing and achieving the world’s greatest ambitions. It’s a whole new cadence. Can you feel the beat? #RewriteTomorrow